Something solid to stand on
by pet rice jp
Summary: On a raid with the DEO, Alex finds a Selah, a teenage girl who is being used for illegal experimentation. Will she be able to overcome her traumas to open up? Set pre-Crisis, just a little something I've been working on for awhile. Lots of fluff
1. Chapter 1

The DEO team that was storming the sketchy, underground lab was far from the best and Director Alex Danvers was the first one to admit it. However, it was the end of a contractual season and the new recruit team wasn't trained yet. On top of that, five of their best agents were on sabbatical and there wasn't supposed to be any major missions until the next month. But an anonymous tip came in about an undercover facility that was experimenting illegally with alien DNA, so, here she was with a shoddy B team of agents who looked like they would rather be literally anywhere else.

"What's the big deal here anyways?" Roberts asked, using his gun to scratch his back. "We experiment at the DEO, why are we busting these guys for it?"

"The DEO is a government facility." Danvers snapped. "We have the training, resources, and ethical guidelines to ensure our tests are run in the best way possible. We don't know what they are doing with this information, or where they are getting the DNA samples from. Also, it would fit you well to remember not to use your weapon as a toy." Roberts blinked a few times before turning away, muttering.

"Okay, we go in, arrest anyone we find, confiscate any materials, and shut the whole place down. It's very cut and dry, ideally no violence at all. Got it?" The agents nodded dutifully and loaded into the vans, Alex ensuring that she was in the same one as Roberts so that she could subtly glare at him the entire way to the site.

Once they were in, Alex looked around, surveying the area. They were in a large, abandoned warehouse, (why were the bad guys always in abandoned warehouses?). It would be generous to describe the floor they were on as spartan, the only things in the room were long tables with medical equipment on them; vials and test tubes and paperwork all in neat stacks.

"Heat signatures," She demanded.

"None on this floor," London replied. "They must have known that we were coming. There's a room at the back that we can't pick up on, though."  
"A Team, check it out." Alex ordered. Five agents scuttled over to the back room as she further examined the space. She walked to one of the tables, her boots echoing on the concrete floor, and picked up one of the vials.A thick, tar-like substance slowly bubbled in it, glistening in the low light.

"Director?" An agent called.

"Bag this up," Alex told a nearby agent, and went over to the scout. "Update?"

"You're going to want to see it yourself, ma'am." Danvers followed the agent (Morrison? Murphy? Macdonald?) to the back room where she stopped. "It's… graphic." She warned. Danvers looked at her for a long moment before pushing open the door.

The room was bathed in red light and it was uncomfortably warm. It too, was sparsely decorated, with one surgical table in the middle surrounded by trays. On the table was a girl.

"Clear out." Danvers called, going to the girl. "Get a medical kit from the van and then finish bagging the rest of this up." The other agents rushed out of the room as she looked at the girl. She was tied to the table, wearing only a thin hospital gown, and was hooked up to dozens of machines. Her arms were heavily bandaged, and she had a gash across her forehead. Checking the girl's neck, she found a weak pulse, but she was dangerously cold. An agent came in with a medical kit, setting it down on one of the trays.

"What happened to her?" he asked, his face horrified.

"They did the tests on her," Danvers replied. "She must have been the source for the DNA. We need an evacuation team, call home base and tell them to prep a room in the med bay."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And get Brooks in here. Tell him it's urgent."

"Right away."

Alex began pulling at the restraints, heavy chains that were attached to the floor. The girl was young, with uneven brown hair that fell over her forehead. She was breathing thanks to a tube that went into her nose, but even that was erratic and slow. Digging through the kit, she found a pair of tweezers and a scalpel and managed to pick the locks. Agent Brooks came in just as she was throwing the chains down.

"Ma'am?" He asked, his face scared in the red light.

"Brooks, good. We need to get this girl to the DEO as soon as we can. Help me figure out how to remove all of these tubes."

"Yes, ma'am." They began disconnecting wires and tubes, and the girl's eyes flickered for a moment.

"She's coming to. We need to move," Danvers said. The girl's face contorted in pain. "Hey, it's okay," she murmured to the girl. "You're safe now. It's going to be okay."

As the last tubes were undone and they began moving the girl out of the room, she took one final sweep of the room before shutting the door.

"Get a media team in there, get photos for evidence, then bring everything to the DEO," She ordered, walking alongside the gurney that the girl was on. "Nothing left."  
"Yes, Ma'am," an agent said. They loaded the girl into a van and Alex and Brooks got in after, closing the doors. The girl flickered in and out of consciousness on the way to the DEO, Alex holding her hand the whole way.

Once they reached the DEO, Alex rushed the girl over to medical before finding Colonel Haley.

"Colonel," She said. "The raid was a success. We found clear signs that they were experimenting, as well as a subject whom they were performing the tests on. She has remained mostly unconscious, and is now in Med Bay C."

"Do we know why they kept her there?" Haley replied.

"Unclear. Permission to transfer over to medical to take lead on the case?"

"Granted. I'll put Sanchez over to training for the recruits."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Keep me updated." Alex saluted and left, going back to the med bay. The team had already gotten the girl into the lab, and she was lying in the bed. Stopping just outside the door, she pulled out her cell phone.

"Kara?" She said when her sister picked up the phone. "You should come in ASAP."

"On my way," Kara replied, and Alex hung up, entering the lab.

"Michaels," Alex said to the doctor. "Haley transferred me over to this case. You can move to lab seven."

"Yes, ma'am." Michaels replied. The doctor left the room, and Alex took a deep breath, going over to the girl. She got a good look at her for the first time and had to stop herself from wincing at the sight. She was already starting to recover after being removed from the facility with the red sun lamps, and she was breathing on her own, but her body still bore the signs of her mistreatment. Alex would guess that she was probably in her late teens, with long arms and legs that were too thin from starvation. Her eyes had deep circles beneath them, and matted tendrils of hair hung in her face in uneven strands; some pieces hung down her back while others were shaved down to the skin. Her skin was pale and grimy, with bruises spattered across her body.

"You're safe now," Alex said, taking her cold hand. "It's going to be okay."

"Should we start running some scans?" A nurse asked, entering the lab.

"No." Alex said quickly. "She's been through enough. Let her rest first." The girl stirred and flinched, and Alex sat down next to the bed.

"Hi," she said. "My name is Agent Alex Danvers. You're safe now." The girl blinked slowly.

"Where am I?" She whispered hoarsely.

"We're with the United States government. This is one of our facilities."

"Loud."

"I know. It's okay. I know you're tired, but can you try telling us some things?" The girl winced, sitting up slightly.

"Like what?" She asked

"We can start with your name." The girl's eyes darkened, and she looked away from Alex.

"No."

"It's okay, I just want to help."

"No more."

"Can I see what's under your bandages?" Alex asked, changing the subject. "You're bleeding through." The girl shook her head, moving her arms closer to her body and squeezing her eyes shut.

"It's okay," Alex pushed the girl's hair up off of her forehead, but the girl cowered away from her touch. "You don't have to tell me anything." It was quiet for a moment.

"Loud," the girl whimpered.

"Carter," Alex said to the nurse, standing up. "We know this kid isn't human. She's not hearing what we hear. Can you get tactical to set up noise blockers around the lab?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"It's going to be quiet soon, okay?" Alex said. The girl didn't move, and the agent moved back to the chair. Seeing her so young, so vulnerable, it reminded her of Kara, and it broke her heart to see the girl's suffering. Alex stood abruptly, seeing Kara coming towards the door, and went to meet her in the hallway.

"Hey," she said, pulling her sister into a hug.

"Hi," Kara replied. "What's going on?"

"We raided a lab. I have a teenage alien girl in there, thought you might be able to help."

"Of course." The two entered the lab together, and Alex went over to the girl again.

"Hey," she said. "I brought a friend along, I thought that she might be able to help out." The girl looked at Kara in her Supergirl outfit and relaxed ever so slightly.

"Hi," Kara said, sitting next to the girl's bed. She held out her hand, and the girl slowly reached out to take it.

"I'm going to change your bandages, okay?" Alex said, pulling on a pair of medical gloves. The girl didn't reply, she just looked at the agent for a long moment, before slowly extending one of her arms out. Gently taking the girl's arm and unraveling the bandages carefully, Alex had to stop herself from wincing at the sight. A long surgical scar spread from her wrist nearly up to her elbow, gaping in the center where it looked as if someone had been digging around in the girl's flesh. The stitches were poorly done, haphazardly closing up the cut and Alex could see an infection beginning to set in at the top.

"I need to clean this out and to re-stitch it." Alex said, gently placing a finger at the base of the wound. "You don't want it getting infected." The girl still said nothing, just kept looking at Alex as she cut out the awkward, crooked stitches and daubed the gash with antiseptic.

"Do you…" she hesitated. "We have a lot of different types of anaesthetics for different alien species. If you tell me where you're from, I can give you some." The girl was quiet for a moment, and just as Alex had accepted that she wasn't going to reply, she spoke in a raspy voice.

"My mother was Andromedan." She coughed, sitting up a little bit. "I don't know what my father was, just that he wasn't the same as my mom. I was born here on Earth."

"Okay." Alex said. "I can try a Kryptonian one, genetically they are very similar to Andromedans."

"No more drugs." The girl said solidly.

"I have to sew it up. If you do it without anaesthesia it will hurt. I don't have to knock you out or anything, I can just use a general numbing."

"No."

"Okay." Alex threaded a needle and hesitated a moment. "I'm sorry." The girl didn't so much as blink as Alex sewed up the gash and applied antiseptic to the site, she just kept staring ahead with her big, sunken grey eyes. "So, do you normally take this long to heal?" She asked wrapping the girl's arm. "I saw that you were under a red sun lamp in there, which would take away Andromedan powers, but you were also complaining about the noise in the lab, which makes me think that your hearing is back."

"I usually heal up almost instantly." The girl replied. "Normally my hearing comes back first, but it's been taking longer for me to heal over the last bit." Alex moved on to the second arm, which looked more infected than the first one. Kara moved to the other side of the bed and took the girl's newly bandaged arm. "How did you know I can hear things?"

"Most Andromedans have advanced senses," Alex replied. "Pretty standard. Besides, I work with this one-" She gestured to Kara, "-and whenever her powers come back after she loses them, the first thing she complains about is the noise." Kara made a face, and Alex chuckled.

"Are you going to do tests on me here?" the girl demanded.

"Nothing like they were doing. We might do an x-ray, or an MRI, or bloodwork, but that's just to make sure that we are giving you the best treatment that we can. No experiments." She wrapped the girl's second arm and placed it back on the bed. "Anything else?" The girl shook her head.

"No." She said.

"Your forehead? I can put a gel on it to keep it closed, no stitches." The girl looked at her for a long moment, her head tilted slightly to one side.

"Fine." Alex pushed the girl's hair up off of her forehead again, and she stared at the agent as she bonded the cut together.

"Okay, well that's done. We would like to keep you here at least until you are healed up." Alex stood and went to the lab bench, removing her gloves. "And eventually, you need to tell us who did this to you. We want them punished, and to make sure that they never do this to anyone again." The girl laid back in the bed and looked at Alex for awhile.

"Selah." She said, glancing at Kara.

"Hmm?"

"My name. Selah."

.

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	2. Chapter 2

Selah had been at the DEO for half a week, but Alex had scarcely learned more than the girl's name. For the first two or three days, she was mostly unresponsive as the last of the drugs left her system, but at night she was plagued with nightmares and hallucinations. She would wake up screaming or writhing in pain, often zapping things with her heat vision. Kara and Alex took turns staying the night with her, to make sure nothing got broken too irreparably. Alex suspected that all of her powers had returned fully, and she watched in fascination as the girl's cuts closed up and healed, leaving no sign of any trauma.

Any time she tried to ask about what happened in the lab; however, Selah became mysteriously mute and would stop talking for hours. Having Kara around seemed to help a little bit- the girl seemed to be very slightly more relaxed with the hero, but she still refused to disclose any information about what had happened to her. Alex was trying her best to give space to process and to reassure her that she was safe, but it was tiring. For most of the day, Selah laid in bed looking at everything as if she was still trying to convince herself that this was indeed real.

"Hey," Alex said as she entered the room on the morning of the fourth day of Selah's stay. "How are we doing today?"

"I'm bored," Selah said flatly. "I've been sitting in this bed for days. My arms and head have healed up. Please, can literally anything happen now?" Alex smiled slightly.

"I know you're a bit anxious to be leaving," she said. "However, we still have a lot to do. We don't know how old you are, if you're legally of age, who your guardians are, where you'll be going, if that will be safe," she trailed off, seeing Selah's face change. "I know it sucks, love, and I'm really sorry but you need to start answering some questions if you want to leave soon."

"I'm legal," Selah muttered. "I'm nineteen."

"Thank you."

"They were my legal guardians," she hesitated. "The doctors. They got custody when I was fourteen."

"How?" Selah didn't reply, her hands playing with the hem of the bloodstained hospital gown she was still wearing. "Okay. Well, I come bearing gifts," Alex said, lifting up the duffel bag she was carrying. "Fresh clothes, a toothbrush, a few other things you might need. I picked them up last night." The girl took the bag silently and held it on her lap. "You can go change in the bathroom across the hall and clean yourself up. There's a shower in there, and if you need anything else you can use the call button."

"Am I allowed to shower alone?" Selah asked dryly. "I've barely been allowed to scratch my own head without one of your nurses jumping me."

"Yes," Alex said. "You have an hour. We'll check back in with you when you're done."

Selah stood in the bathroom for a long moment after the door closed, just thinking. It had been a long and confusing few days, filled with dreams and hallucinations of being in the lab and being held down and sliced open again, like a bug under a microscope. From what she could tell of Kara and Alex and the other doctors and nurses, they were all genuine and truly trying to help her, but that's what she thought of the scientists at the lab, too.

She looked at herself in the mirror and nearly recoiled at the sight. She hadn't seen what she looked like in months, and her gaunt face and tired eyes beneath the uneven mop of hair that fell awkwardly into her face looked so foreign that it was like she was staring at a stranger. She had definitely lost weight, and her limbs looked too long and gangly on her thin frame. She might as well be a walking skeleton.

Still the most shocking was her hair. She knew that they had cut it and she knew it was shorter, but she didn't expect it to be this short, cut nearly to the scalp in some places, and still hanging down her back in others. It was also greasy and matted, with enough dirt and grime in it to make it a mousy brown color.

Snapping out of her reverie, she reminded herself that she was there to take a shower. Pulling off the hospital gown, she grimaced again at the sight of her bony, bloodstained body. The marks and bruises from where all the tubes had been poked into her skin had long faded, but she still remembered where they were, and it was as if she could still feel them in her body. Turning on the shower, she stepped under the spray and allowed herself to cry for the first time in months.

She scrubbed herself until all the blood had washed off, and her skin was an angry pink. She rubbed shampoo and conditioner into her hair as best she could, and watched the blood and dirt go down the drain, wishing it was that easy to be rid of all the time in the lab, all the memories. She washed her face and brushed her teeth and put on some of the clothes that Alex had brought her, a tee shirt and jeans. She was working on combing through her matted hair when a knock came at the door.

"Hey," Alex's knocked gently on the door. "Just checking in. How are you doing?" Selah picked up the bag and went to the door, opening it.

"I'm fine." She said. "We can go back to the room now." Alex led her back to the med bay where they found Kara sitting on the counter, eating a donut.

"Hey," Alex greeted her sister. "I have to pop out for a meeting, but Supergirl is here to make sure you're okay."

"I don't need a babysitter," Selah grumbled, dropping her bag onto the floor.

"I know," Alex said. "I just want you to feel comfortable. You're okay?" The girl nodded, not making eye contact. "Okay. I'll be back later." She left the lab, leaving Kara alone with the girl.

"Donut?" Kara offered, holding out a takeout box. Selah shook her head, sitting down on the bed, still trying to rake a comb through her hair. She still had a few mats at the back of her head, and it was quite tangled from her shower.

"May I?" Kara asked, jumping down from the counter. She turned to face the hero and looked at her for a moment before handing her the comb. Kara sat behind Selah on the bed and began carefully working the comb through the girl's hair, trying her best to be gentle.

"They cut it," Selah said, surprising Kara. "When I was there. They said it was for cell research. And then they shaved it down for surgery. That's why it looks so bad."

"It's not that bad," Kara tried to offer, but the girl just laughed, surprising her again.

"It's like a mullet on speed. It's horrible." Kara chuckled as she worked out a knot.

"I didn't realize your hair was so light colored," she said. "I thought it was brown but it's more of a reddish blonde."

"Not being allowed to wash your hair for six months will do that to you," Selah said. The two sat in silence for a while, as Kara kept carefully untangling the knots and combing the girl's hair out until it was all smooth. Once she was done, she began tying the girl's hair back into a French braid, doing her best to get all the shorter pieces in.

"You're good," Kara said, setting the comb down once she was finished. "All done."

"Thanks," Selah murmured. "I guess I should get it cut soon too."

"Only if you want to, and only when you're ready. You don't have to rush into anything." The girl didn't reply, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"Hey, um," she said eventually. The hero looked up, her eyes meeting Selah's. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Kara handed the comb back to her, and Selah put it into her bag. "I know it's been a rough adjustment over the past few days, but we are here for you." Selah looked up, her eyes scanning Kara's.

"I think I have most Andromedan powers," she said suddenly. "But I have a few extras, too. I guess those are from my dad."

"I was wondering about that," Kara said. "Heat vision isn't a typical power for Andromedans, is it?" Selah shook her head. "Can you remind me what exactly Andromedan powers are? I've been trying to do research, but there's not much of anything on file."

"Flight, speed, strength, those are pretty universal for mostly all aliens, right?" Kara nodded as Alex opened the door to the lab and re-entered the room, taking the donut that Kara had left on the counter. "Then just telekinesis and telepathy, and accelerated healing."

"Wait, hold on a second," the doctor interjected through a mouthful of sprinkles. "Telepathy?" Selah looked vaguely guilty. "You can read minds?"

"Not in the traditional sense," she said, biting her lip.

"What does that mean?" Kara asked.

"I can't help hearing people's thoughts, I just hear them like I hear talking. I can also put my thoughts into someone else's head, but I'm not as good at that one."

"So, you've been able to read my thoughts this whole time?" Selah nodded slowly. "And everyone around you?" She nodded again. Alex sighed heavily. "You're going to have to sign a bunch of non-disclosure forms," she said. "What are your other powers?

"I can hear things and see things, even if they're far away, and see through walls and shit, and then just heat vision and freeze breath," Selah replied. Alex bit her lip, turning to Kara.

"That sounds Kryptonian," Kara said. "Where did you say that your dad was from?"

"I didn't," Selah replied. "Never met the guy."

"Would I be able to do a blood test?" Alex asked carefully, already suspecting the answer. "We can run it through the system and see if there's any matches to a species." Selah immediately pulled her arms in closer to her body and moved her eyes away from Alex's again. "Okay," the doctor said. "Maybe another time. Only if you want to."

Alex went home that evening to spend the night at her apartment for the one of the first times that week. Throwing her keys down, she pulled out her phone to text Kara.

'_Hey_,' she wrote. '_finally home, coming over tonight?_'

She tossed her phone onto the couch and went to change out of her work clothes, massaging her sore feet as she went. Her old boots had worn out, so she had to buy a new pair of DEO issued steel toed combat boots and despite her wearing them almost non-stop for a week, they still weren't broken in yet. Once she was changed into sweatpants and her old National City University tee shirt, she checked her phone again.

'_OMG, yes_,' Kara had replied. '_I'm coming over with pizza right now_.'

'_Don't text and fly_,' Alex sent back with a smirk. Going to the fridge, she pulled out a beer for herself and orange juice for Kara. Just as she was setting them on the coffee table, her sister pulled open the balcony door holding a pizza.

"Hey," she said pulling Alex into a hug.

"Did you fly over here in normal clothes holding a pizza?" Alex demanded. "You're going to get yourself outed as Supergirl."

"I flew faster than any drone can see. Besides, it's nighttime and it's cloudy." Alex gave her a disapproving look. "Do you want pizza or not?"

"Yes, please." Kara put her bag on the floor and brought the pizza to the coffee table, plopping down on the couch.

"How are you?" She asked. Alex sighed, grabbing a slice of pizza. "That bad?" Kara asked.

"Can't stop thinking about Selah."

"Me neither."

"She still doesn't trust me. I just want to help, and I think she knows that, but she still doesn't trust me at all." She took a long sip of her beer, grimacing at the taste.

"She's been through trauma, Al." Kara says, her voice soft. "It's a miracle she even talks at all."

"I know." Alex replied. "And I know it will take time. It's just so hard seeing her and all the ways they hurt her."

"It sucks." Kara said. "That could have very easily been me if I didn't end up with you guys. It doesn't seem fair."

"We wouldn't be sisters." Alex replied. Kara turned to her; her eyes sad.

"I'm really thankful for you, Al," she said. The agent threw her arm around her sister and gave her a side hug.

"You too," she replied. "I don't suppose she revealed any deep dark secrets to you while I was in my meeting?"

"Besides the fact that she can read minds?" Kara asked, laughing dryly.

"Besides that, yeah."

"No, but that does remind me," the hero sat up slightly, tossing her pizza slice onto the table. "I combed out her hair for her today, and there's a piece of metal embedded into her skull. It looks like a bolt or a screw or something. I didn't ask her about it, but what could that have been for?"

"Is it a plate, or is it just the one piece?" Alex asked, her forehead crinkling.

"Just the one piece, but there's a wider base on the inside of her skull. It looked like it was made to screw something onto her head and have it anchored from the inside."

"Nothing mechanical in it?"

"No."

"My guess is that it's the base that they screwed a power dampener into," Alex took another long sip of her beer. "Probably for her mind reading. Like the one we had for Psi, but permanent." The sisters sat in silence, letting the gravity of Alex's statement set in.

"Poor girl," Kara murmured. "Should we offer to remove it? Can we even remove it?"

"I'd have to look at it to know for sure. It's up to her if she lets us take it out, I guess. On the one hand it might make her trust us more, because we're unequivocally saying that she is allowed to have her powers here, no matter," Alex sighed a little, "how many NDA's she has to sign. But it also might make her guards go up, because that's surgery, and she doesn't seem to have a great track record when it comes to people giving her brain surgery." It was quiet again, as both women thought about what could have possibly gone on in that lab, knowing that whatever horrors they imagined probably weren't too far from the truth.

"We'd better catch the bastards who did this," Kara muttered.

"We will," Alex replied, hoping she was right.

.

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	3. Chapter 3

"Updates on the search?" Alex demanded as she walked into the DEO the next morning.

"None yet, ma'am," Vasquez replied. "We swept the facility for DNA, looked at all the nearby traffic cameras to try and get a facial recognition match, and attempted to contact the person who anonymously gave the tip, but all leads are coming up empty. All we have is the notes and data that we recovered from the site, but most of them are written in code. I have some agents working on deciphering them, but it's slow going." She hesitated before continuing. "If I may, Director, I think our best bet in finding them is in getting the girl to talk. I understand that she experienced severe trauma, but she's our only shot at bringing these criminals to justice."

"I know," Alex sighed. "I just am not sure how to go about that conversation when she doesn't trust any of us yet." She sank into her chair at the main desk, rubbing her forehead. "Keep me updated on any leads. Maybe send an agent out to Al's bar, and other places with a large alien population, see if anyone knows about any illegal test sites." The agent nodded and went back to her desk as Alex turned on the computer.

She had just barely begun drafting an email to one of her contacts at the NCPD, asking him if he had any potential information on the case, when one of the rookie agents rushed into the atrium.

"Ma'am?" He asked, a note of urgency in his voice. Alex stood up immediately and began walking to the lab.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

"Nurse Collins sent me to get you, she said that the alien patient collapsed." They reached Alex's lab, and she entered hastily, seeing Selah convulsing on the bed.

"What happened?" Alex asked, going to the girl's side.

"She seems to be having a seizure," Collins replied. "My guess is that it is grand mal. I was asking her how the night went, and we were just talking normally when her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed."

"Heart rate?"

"93 BPM. A little high, but not concerning. Her breathing is normal."

"We'll just have to wait it out." Alex pulled a stool over to the bed and sat down. "Hey Selah, it's Alex," she murmured. "You're safe. You're at the DEO, and you're going to be okay."

They sat like that for the whole length of the seizure, Alex next to the bed quietly talking to her, and the nurse timing and monitoring Selah's breathing and heart rate. Alex couldn't help but think of when they first took Selah from the facility; how she had held the girl's hand on the ride to the DEO, gently talking to her and comforting her just as she was now. It seemed like much longer ago than only five days.

Eventually, Selah's convulsions slowed and her eyes began to flutter open.

"Hey, love," Alex said, sitting up a little bit. "How are you feeling?" Selah moved slowly, trying to prop herself up on her elbows, but she couldn't quite keep her balance. "Woah, take it easy. I've got you."

"I'm thirsty." Selah mumbled, her voice gravelly. The nurse rushed to get a bottle of water from the mini fridge and handed it to Alex.

"Here you go," Alex said. "I'll help you drink, okay?" She braced the girl's head and carefully moved the bottle to Selah's lips, letting her drink. "Slowly, love. If you do anything too fast right now, you could go back into a seizure, and we don't want that." She helped the girl lay back down once she had taken a drink, placing her head upon the pillow again.

"My head hurts," she grumbled, slurring her words slightly.

"I know. It will pass," Alex replied. "What was the total time?" she asked, turning to the nurse.

"Ten minutes and thirty-four seconds," Collins replied. "Breath rate and pulse remained stable the entire time."

"Thank you," Alex said. Selah blinked slowly and looked around the lab, her eyes bleary.

"Water?" She asked, listlessly moving her hand towards the bottle. Alex helped her drink again, stroking the girl's hair gently.

"How are you feeling?" She asked again. The girl sat up a little bit in bed, wincing at the effort. Collins moved the pillows to help prop her up better.

"Pretty gross still. Should be better soon."

"Has this happened before?" The nurse asked. Selah nodded slowly.

"It started when I first got to the lab," she said hoarsely. "With all the drugs I was on. Then they started testing them. They'd send a current through my brain to trigger seizures and then study my response with different drugs, and how it changed with the location of the wire-" she abruptly stopped talking, clearing her throat. "It got a lot worse after they put the port into my head for the power dampener."

"Hey," Alex said, tipping Selah's chin up with her thumb. "It's okay. You're going to be fine." The girl looked at Alex, her eyes sad. "How long does it typically take you to recover?"

"Fifteen to twenty minutes, maybe? It took longer at the beginning but eventually I started getting more used to it, and I'd get better faster."

"Okay," the doctor replied. "I'll stay here with you. Is it okay if I take your pulse and check your pupils, just to make sure everything is going back to normal? No bloodwork or anything invasive, I promise."

Selah looked at Alex for a second, her head tilted to one side, before clearing her throat again.

"Okay," she said.

"Thank you." Alex felt a wave of relief wash over her. This was the first time that Selah was letting her do anything remotely similar to a medical test, and it was a huge first step towards getting the girl to trust her. "Collins," she said, looking at the nurse. "Can you document this in the files and record everything that you saw, including any potential triggers?" The nurse nodded and left the lab as Alex pulled out a stethoscope and began taking the girl's pulse.

"Sorry about all the fuss," Selah said eventually. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"I wasn't scared," Alex replied automatically. The girl tilted her head and raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Okay, I was a little scared," she admitted. "I'm just glad you're safe."

"Me too." Selah replied quietly.

"Feeling any different now?"

"I bet I can move stuff again."

"That's always a plus," Alex said. The cord of her stethoscope began floating up, and she sighed. "Right, you mean telepathically. I forgot about that." Selah made the cord bounce up and down a few times before Alex swatted at it. "I'm trying to count your heart rate. That is not helping."

"Sorry," Selah said, laughing, and the stethoscope returned to normal. "You were at twenty-four."

"Thanks." Alex said dryly. She finished up the rest of the tests and began filling out a form for the girl's file, as Selah regained her strength and began telepathically opening and closing the drawers of the filing cabinet and cupboards behind Alex.

"I know what you're thinking," she said abruptly, snapping the DEO agent out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?" Alex asked, looking up from her work.

"I know what your're thinking," Selah repeated. "About the port. Say it." The agent set her pen down and sighed.

"I think that having a metal bolt screwed into your skull would cause inflammation, changes to the release of neurotransmitters, and interference to the blood-brain barrier. It's well documented that a traumatic injury to the brain, especially one where the skull is penetrated- can cause epilepsy. In my opinion the port is almost definitely worsening, if not completely causing your seizures, and the best form of treatment that I can think of is to remove it entirely. Everything else would just be a band-aid." Alex said slowly. "However," she added. "It is entirely up to you whether we remove it or not. I'm not going to force you to do anything, or pressure you to make any decisions. I just want you to know the facts of your situation."

The girl didn't say anything for a few moments, and she kept her eyes on the floor.

"I want it out," she said quietly, looking up at Alex. "Can you be the one to do it?"

"Of course," Alex replied.

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	4. Chapter 4

Kara never claimed to be the most talented hair stylist in the world, but she was passable. She worked at her cousin's salon when she was at Stanhope to help pay tuition, and she had learned how to trim her own hair herself with the kryptonite scissors when Alex went off to college, so she had some experience. She could manage quite well, but it was proving to be much more difficult to show that to an alien teenager who she rescued from an underground facility.

"Hey," she said to Selah, who refused to meet her eyes. "You told me you wanted to do this."

"I said that I might want it to be done in general," the girl corrected, fidgeting with a roll of Alex's medical bandages as she sat on her bed in the lab. "Not that I specifically wanted you to do it."

"You're right, my bad." Kara retorted. "Why don't I just drive you to the Quikkie Cutz down the road? I'm sure they'll do a bang-up job. Do normal scissors even work on your hair?" Selah didn't reply and continued avoiding eye contact.

"Selah." Kara said. The girl finally looked at her. "Please. I know it still hurts, and I want to help you move past that. I can do this, but only if you want me to." She looked away again, clearly torn.

"I want you to do it." She muttered. "Please."

"Okay," Kara said. She pulled a stool out from the island in the lab and patted it. Selah slowly moved towards it before sitting down. "Hey," Kara reminded. "Only if you want to." The girl nodded and Kara spread a towel over her shoulders, looking at her hair. Some pieces were long, going past her shoulders, but others barely passed her chin, while in a few spots it was sheared off to the scalp. She had just showered as well, so water droplets gathered on the ends and dripped onto the floor. Kara combed through Selah's hair a few times, looking at it before deciding what to do. Her finger grazed the metal port on the back of the girl's head for a brief moment, and she winced.

"I'm not really sure what to do with this, love." She admitted after a moment. Selah didn't reply, her hands fidgeting with a stray thread on the towel. "You okay?" She nodded slowly.

"Just reminds me of there, kind of. Don't love that."

"Only if you want to."

"I know." Selah replied. "Um. Can you maybe just take it all off?"

"All of it?" Kara asked. Selah nodded. "Like, shave it all off?" the girl nodded again.

"There's not much else that you can do, I'd imagine," she said. "Besides, Alex is going to cut my head open in a few days, and I'm sure that will make it easier for her."

"Okay," Kara said. "If that's what you want." She crossed over to the cupboards on the far wall and pulled out the Kryptonite enhanced clippers that Winn had made years ago when he was unsuccessfully trying to convince her to get an undercut

"You're positive?" Kara asked again as she plugged them in. Selah gave her a glowering look. "Okay, okay. Just making sure." Popping a guard onto the clippers, she turned them on, hesitating to give Selah a moment to back out if she wanted to. When none came, she slowly brought them to the top of the girl's forehead and pushed them back towards the crown, carefully cutting off a clean line of hair. Repeating this several times, she buzzed off the entire top section of Selah's head, leaving behind about an inch of hair, and began on the left side of her head.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, noticing the girl still fidgeting. Selah shrugged slowly.

"I don't know," she muttered. "Okay."

"Yeah?"

"They just would do this before they cut open my head to do stuff to my brain, so it's a little hard to not have that whole connotation." Kara paused for a moment, taking in what the girl said.

"Did they do more surgeries?" Kara asked. "Other than the port?"

"Surgery is a generous way to describe it. They put electrodes on my brain to map different areas and what they did. They injected stuff into it sometimes, I'm not sure what that was for. They'd mostly just poke around and see what happened." By now Kara had finished the left side of Selah's head and moved over to the right, pretending not to notice the small tears the girl angrily wiped away. "Can we not talk about that?"

"Of course." Kara focused her thoughts onto her task, hoping it would reassure the girl, and sped up her pace. Once she had finished, she set the clippers down and stood behind the girl, her hand resting on Selah's shoulder.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"Anytime." Kara replied. "Are you doing okay?" Selah pulled the towel off of her shoulders, putting it on the island, and she turned to face Kara.

"I think so." The hero gently brushed a few stray hairs off the girl's head and smiled slightly.

"If it makes you feel any better, you look pretty dope." She said. "Do you want to see?" Selah shook her head slowly.

"Not yet"

"Update?" Alex asked, already fearing the answer. It was late in the afternoon, almost time for the desk agents to go home, and frustration was beginning to build up in the director. There were still no leads about any of the scientists running the lab, and every time she tried to bring it up with Selah, the girl got significantly more fidgety and would only mutter out a few words. So far, she had only said that the lab had five male doctors and two female ones, that there was also a team of security guards, all men, and that there were three people who led the whole facility, referred to only as "The Directors".

"We might have something, ma'am," Vasquez said, walking over to Alex's desk. She handed the agent a tablet with a blurry photo of a woman on it. "We recovered this from a dashboard camera nearby the site. This was taken two weeks before we became involved."

"Can Brainy refine the photo to get us a clearer image?"

"He already did." Vasquez tapped the screen and the image shifted better into focus. The woman had light brown hair and dark eyes, and she looked to be in her mid thirties. "We're running facial recognition right now."

"Excellent," Alex said, studying the woman's face. "Good work, Vasquez. I'll try to talk to Selah to see if she recognizes her." Vasquez nodded, and Alex took the tablet, walking towards the lab. Her heart was pounding, and the frustration that she had been feeling earlier dissipated. Finally they had a lead. Finally something was going to happen.

"Hey," she said walking into her lab. Selah was sitting on the bed reading a book about astrophysics, which she set down upon hearing Alex.

"Hi," the girl replied, smiling slightly. She was looking much better lately; she had put some weight back on, so she no longer looked so skeletal, her cheeks had more color in them, and her newly short hair made her whole face seem more open and less guarded.

"I have to ask you something," Alex began carefully. Selah sensed where the conversation was going and automatically began twisting the blanket in her hand, looking away from the agent. "We got this photo of a woman near the lab while you were still there. Do you recognize her?" She handed the tablet to the girl, and Selah looked at it, her face unreadable. "Selah?" Alex prompted after a moment.

"Yeah," she replied, clearing her throat. "She was one of the doctors."

"Do you know a name?"

"They all had code names. Hers was Nova. She did a lot of research with my cells to find out stuff with my biology and where my powers came from." Alex took the tablet back and closed the image.

"Thank you," she said, feeling relief wash off of her in waves. "I'll update Vasquez." Selah picked up her book again, and the agent left the lab, returning to the atrium.

"Vasquez?" She asked, walking over to the desk.

"Yes Ma'am?" The agent replied, turning to face Alex.

"Selah confirmed that this was one of the doctors. She has a background in cell research and molecular biology. Her code name was Nova." Vasquez nodded and began typing on her computer. Alex returned to her desk and set the tablet down, her mind still on Selah. The girl had become slightly more distant towards her, which she presumed was because of the upcoming surgery. Alex had told her multiple times that she was allowed to change her mind, but she insisted that she wanted the port removed.

She knew that that the surgery would be more than triggering for the girl; she would have to be under a red sun lamp to remove her powers, and she would be knocked unconscious while they performed a major operation, and Alex was worried that all the progress that they had made would disappear. Selah was barely beginning to open up and move on past the incident, and now she had to go right back to where she started, powerless, scared, and injured. Kara had already promised that she would be there for the procedure and would stay with Selah the whole time, which seemed to relax the girl a little bit, but she still refused to make eye contact with anyone around her when the surgery was brought up. Alex just hoped that the trust that they had built up would be enough to carry them through to the other side.

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	5. Chapter 5

Selah woke up on the morning of her surgery with a knot in her stomach. Lying on her back in bed, she stared up at the ceiling of the lab, trying to quell the waves of anxiety that rose up in her.

_It's not like the facility_, she reminded herself. _You're safe here._ She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and took a deep breath before sitting up.

"Good, you're up," Nurse Collins said, walking in. "Agent Danvers wants to remind you that the operation is set to begin in an hour."

"Okay," Selah murmured.

"You can't have breakfast today, but can I bring you anything to drink?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Alright." The nurse turned to leave again, but hesitated. "You're going to be okay, Selah. I know that you know that, I just wanted to remind you."

"Thanks." Collins left, and Selah got dressed, worrying the inside of her lip. Kara would be arriving soon, so she went into the atrium to wait for the hero.

"Selah Undisclosed Surname," Brainy's voice came from behind a computer.

"Hi," Selah replied. "And it's Lerrol. How's your morning?"

"Average," he replied, raising one eyebrow. "I have been running facial recognition on the woman you refer to as Nova, but I have no matches yet. Our best frame from the video still had her face partially obscured by hair, so it might make finding her more difficult."

"Could I send you mental images of what they looked like?" Selah suggested. "Would you be able to run them through the system if they're just in your mind?"

"Certainly," Brainy replied. "I am part computer, so technically, I am the system." Selah closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, conjuring up images of Nova, as well as any security guards, doctors, and other staff members that she could remember. She felt the images solidify in her brain and she then reached out with her mind, finding Brainy's consciousness- a whiteish blue orb floating over the Coluan's head. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she sent the images over, one by one.

"I have received your transmissions," he said. Selah opened her eyes again to see all the faces she sent over beamed up onto the screens on the wall.

"Good," she muttered.

"I sense that it was difficult for you."

"I'm just not used to sending stuff to other people. Mostly I just listen to what they send out."

"Well it seems to have worked." He gestured to the screens. "These are the agents from the lab?"

"Yes," Selah looked at the faces, fifteen to twenty of them and swallowed down the memories that were rising up in her. "Those two on the top, the blonde man and the woman with dark hair, they were two of the Directors, Director Alpha and Beta. There was a third one too, but I never met him. And then the next eight were all of the doctors. The rest were security guards or nurses or general staff."

"I will run these faces through the system," Brainy declared. "You are not entirely unhelpful, Selah Lerrol."

"Um, thanks?" Selah asked. She turned to see Alex leaning against the far wall, watching the interaction.

"Glad to see you're opening up a little more," the agent said smiling slightly.

"I thought I might be able to help," she explained, the knot returning in her stomach as Kara soared in through the balcony. "I want them to face justice."

"They will." Alex stated firmly. She looked over at Kara and then back at the girl. "Are you ready?"

"I guess." Kara threw an arm around Selah's shoulders as they followed Alex to the surgical suite. Once they arrived, a nurse handed her a hospital gown and sent her across the hall to change.

Closing the door to the bathroom, she let out a long breath that she didn't realize she had been holding in. She turned to the mirror and looked at her face, scared and pale.

"You're okay," she muttered, unzipping her sweatshirt and beginning to get changed. "You can trust them." Once she had changed, she took another glance at herself in the mirror, and swallowed hard. At the lab, she had only ever worn hospital gowns, and the blue and white fabric felt like a reminder of all the torture and abuse.

She pulled open the door to the bathroom and returned to the surgical suite to find Kara alone.

"Alex went to go change into scrubs and brief the team on the procedure," she explained. "She told me to tell you that you can just hang out until she gets back, and then they'll switch on the red sun lamps."

"Okay," Selah replied, chewing on one of her fingernails.

"Are you doing okay?" Kara asked.

"I'm fine."

"Love, you're shaking." Selah didn't reply, turning her head away from Kara and swallowing back tears. The hero pulled her into a tight hug, focusing on calming thoughts as she felt the girl trembling in her arms. Eventually Selah pulled away, rubbing at her eyes as she went to sit on the surgical table.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"Don't apologize," Kara replied, going to sit next to her and wrapping an arm around her. "It's perfectly understandable for you to be scared."

"I know." For awhile, the only sound was the distant noise of conversation in the atrium, and a quiet buzz from the machines. "Did you know that my fingers can regenerate themselves?" the girl said suddenly.

"What?" Kara asked, turning to look at her again.

"Yeah. If you cut off my finger, it grows back." The girl chewed on her lip for a moment, not looking at Kara. "Not my hand or my arm though."

"Did they cut off your fingers?"

"Whenever I didn't listen, or I resisted." Selah's voice was even and low. "The first time they did it they cut off my pinky because I attacked a guard. They didn't know it would come back; I think they were as surprised as I was. Then they cut off the rest of my fingers just to see if they would grow back too, and they did. It took a few weeks, but they did. They tried cutting off my hands next, but those didn't grow back, the stumps just healed off, so they reattached them eventually." She cleared her throat. "They used to joke that if I acted up, they'd cut my hands off and reattach them backwards, or they'd swap out a hand for a foot."

"That's barbaric," Kara said her voice incredulous, as frustration and anger welled up in her.

"That was pretty tame compared to some of the other stuff they did, Kara." She cleared her throat again. "I'd take losing a finger over brain surgery any day."

"I'm so, so sorry, love." Alex re-entered the room wearing blue scrubs and a lab coat as Selah wiped at her eyes angrily.

"How are we doing in here?" Alex asked.

"Fine," the girl replied, playing with the hem of the hospital gown.

"I'm going to turn on the sun lamps now. You'll need to be under them for probably an hour before we can operate." Selah nodded, reading the plan from Alex's thoughts: Put her under the red lamps, knock her out, saw through her skull, remove the port, replace her skull, sew it up, and put her under yellow sun lamps until she woke up again. It seemed simple enough, and Alex appeared to have the skill set required to pull it off, but the girl still felt anxious.

"Okay. I'm ready." She said. Alex nodded and began setting up the lamps as Kara moved off of the table, pulling up a stool to sit on next to the girl. Selah laid on her back on the table as Alex positioned the red sun lamps over top of her-specifically oriented so that Kara could sit next to the bed without also being hit with the light- and switched them on, bathing her in a red glow. Kara took her hand and squeezed it, trying her best to reassure the girl.

"Okay, well you're all set now," the doctor said. "Kara and I will stay with you here until we're ready to start."

"Okay," Selah whispered. The three were silent for a moment, before Kara spoke.

"Um. Want to play twenty questions?" she asked. Selah barked out a short laugh.

"I'm about to go into brain surgery and you want to play twenty questions?"

"Technically it's not brain surgery, it's just a breaching of the skull. The brain shouldn't be involved at all," Alex interjected, not looking up from her laptop.

"Why not?" Kara asked. "We have an hour to kill. Besides, twenty questions is my go-to game for long car rides. Alex and I used to play it for hours when we went to visit her grandparents in Washington."

"Kara, I can read minds, remember?"

"Right. Well then you can come up with the subject and I can guess."

"Fine," Selah conceded, biting back a smile. "I've got my subject."

"Is it a person?"

"No."

"Is it a place?"

"No."

They played nine rounds of twenty questions. Kara didn't guess a single category in time, often wasting several guesses way too early on, (Is it sticky buns? Is it Alex's stethoscope? Is it 'NSync's self titled album 'NSync?).

"Is it Justin Timberlake's frosted tips?" Kara guessed half heartedly, using up her last guess of the tenth round.

"I told you already, it has nothing to do with 'NSync," Selah said.

"Well it's not a person, place, animal, or idea, it's not food related, it's related to Justin Timberlake, and it's something that physically exists. What else could it be?"

"Literally thousands of things. You're so bad at this game."

"How dare you," Kara said, feigning offense. "What was it?"

"Britney Spears' jean dress from the 2001 American Music Awards," Selah said, smirking.

"How am I supposed to have guessed that?"

"I sent a telepathic message to Brainy asking for a short list of things that are important to you, and he responded: 'hope and justice, ice cream, Chinese takeout, family, and Justin Timberlake's iconic early 2000's fashion choices'" She shrugged. "That one seemed like the easiest option."

"That's cheating," Kara protested.

"Yeah well I'm about to have skull breaching surgery, so you can't be mad at me."

"Do you still have your powers?" Alex asked.

"I still have my telepathy, but it's getting patchy. That's usually the last thing to go." She blinked her eyes a few times. "I don't have heat vision anymore. I think most of them are gone." Alex nodded.

"I'd guess then we need another ten to fifteen minutes until we can operate," she said.

"How are you feeling?" Kara asked. Selah shrugged, looking down at her hands.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "A little scared."

"Want to play another round of twenty questions?"

"Not to be dramatic, but I'd literally rather die in a skull breaching surgery."

"Not going to happen on my watch," Alex interjected.

"Fine," Kara said with a pout. "I spy? Two truths and a lie?"

"Can't we just sit in a relaxing silence?"

"I know that a relaxing silence really just means you being anxious about the skull breaching that will be taking place soon. I'm trying to keep your mind off of it."

"I know." Selah said. "I just am feeling a little overwhelmed."

"Okay," Kara replied. She pulled her stool in as close to the bed as she could without touching the red light, and took the girl's hand and squeezed it, more gently this time. Selah took a few deep breaths as Kara began lightly tracing patterns on the back of her hand and humming quietly. She was still quite nervous, but she wasn't as scared as she thought she would be. She'd never admit it to Kara, but the games and the jokes and the little distractions had helped.

She laid there on her back, staring up into the red light, feeling her telepathy slip away and her body become more vulnerable until all her powers were gone. The only sounds were Alex's erratic typing on her laptop and Kara's soft humming.

_You're going to be okay_, she reminded herself.

"Okay," Alex said finally, shutting her laptop. "Are your powers gone?" Selah nodded. "I'm going to try to set up an IV, okay?" The doctor moved over to the operating table and shut off the red sun lamps, moving them out of the way. She pulled on a pair of gloves and picked up a needle, looking at the girl for a second.

"I'm okay," Selah said, her throat dry. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the pain as Alex put the needle in and set up the IV, focusing instead on Kara still gently rubbing her other hand.

"Well," Alex said, straightening up. "We're all set to go now. I'm going to get my team in here in a second, but I thought you might prefer to go unconscious with just us here."

"Yes, please."

"I'm going to start injecting the anaesthesia, okay?"

"Okay." Alex opened a drip for a bag attached to the IV, and Selah felt something cold begin to run into her arm. She stiffened slightly, and panic rose up in her.

"Hey," Kara said putting a hand on the girl's cheek. "Look at me, love. You're okay." Selah's scared eyes met Kara's and the hero began gently stroking her hair. "Right at me. You're safe." The girl's eyes fluttered shut, and the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the glyph on Kara's chest.

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	6. Chapter 6

"Do you have any sevens?" Kara asked Selah, her face serious. The two were playing cards together on Selah's cot- both blatantly cheating- on the second morning after the girl's surgery. She had recovered almost entirely; the cut had closed up and her powers had fully returned only a few hours after the surgery, but Alex had still insisted that she stay on bed rest for the first day.

"Go fish," Selah replied, grinning widely.

"Damn you!" Kara yelled, throwing her cards down angrily. "It's not fair, you can read minds!"

"You were x-raying my cards the whole time to see which ones I had," the girl countered, still smirking. "Do you want to play again?"

"I'd rather die," the hero muttered, indignantly picking the cards up off of the floor. "Do you want to get out of here?" She asked after a bit.

"For real?" Selah asked, looking up in surprise.

"Why not? We could get coffee, or just go for a walk if you'd prefer that."

"Am I..." the girl hesitated, biting her lip. "Am I allowed to just leave like that?"

"Of course!" Kara said emphatically. "I mean, maybe not on your own at first, but if you're with me then no one will give you any grief for it. We can double check with Alex to be sure, but I don't see why she'd have any issues with it."

"Because you're Supergirl?"

"And I have major sway around here, didn't you know," Kara said, dramatically grabbing her coat. "Speaking of which, have you signed those NDAs yet?"

"I signed the first ten and then I took a nap," Selah replied, standing up. "Where are we going to go?"

"Anywhere you want," Kara glanced at her watch. "We could go get second breakfast from Noonan's."

"Sure." Together they left the room and talked to Alex, who gave Kara a _look_ but agreed to give them a half hour out of the DEO, with the understanding that when they returned, they had to have a talk regarding some leads on the doctors at the lab, and that if Selah had a seizure, Kara was to fly her back to the DEO _immediately_ for monitoring. As they left the DEO and stepped out onto the sidewalk, Kara noticed Selah shiver slightly, and she swore that she felt a wave of energy come off of the girl, making the hair on her arms stand up.

"You good?" She asked, glancing over as they continued to walk.

"Yeah," Selah replied quickly. "Sorry, did I zap you?"

"Maybe?"

"When I get excited, I send out more psychic energy." She looked up at the sky and smiled. "I just haven't like, been outside in five years."

"Right," Kara said. "We can go back if it's too much for you," she offered.

"No, it's fine," Selah replied, and another wave of energy rolled over Kara, slightly stronger than the first one. "I never thought I would get to see the sky again."

"I'm really glad that you're happy, but we probably shouldn't hit too many strangers with psychic energy," Kara said, lowering her voice and bumping the girl's shoulder with her own.

"I guess not." Selah took a deep breath, and her smile widened. "Thank you."

"For what?" They reached a cross walk and Kara pressed the button. She couldn't help but smile seeing the girl so content and carefree.

"For doing all of this," Selah replied. "You've always been so nice to me since I came to the DEO."

"You deserve to have people in your life who care." The girl ducked her head down, still smiling as they crossed the street. "Besides, I know how it feels to be in a new situation and to not know who you can trust. When I first came to Earth, I had Alex and Eliza. They made me feel like I was safe and that this could be my home someday. I want you to feel that same stability."

They walked together in silence for a bit, Selah going out of her way to step on the extra crunchy leaves that were littered across the sidewalk. Kara hadn't seen the girl smile so much in the whole time that she had known her for.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked. Selah raised her eyebrows, waiting for the question. "How did you keep your powers at the lab if you didn't go outside in the sunlight?"

"Sun lamps," the girl answered, her smile fading a bit. "They would make me use my heat vision until I blew out my powers when they wanted to do surgery or tests, and then heal me up with the lamps when they were done. It was easier for them if I had powers, I think, because then I didn't need to sleep or eat as much. But they kept the tiara on so that I couldn't hear what they were thinking." She looked back up at the sky, tilting her face towards the sun. "Real sunlight is so much better than sun lamps," she said

"Agreed." They walked up in front of Noonan's, and Kara's stomach growled in anticipation. "This place is the best," she said. "I used to waitress here when I first moved to the city, and I instantly fell in love with the sticky buns."

"Yeah?" Selah asked.

"They're so good, it's going to change your life, I promise." Kara held the door open for the girl, but when she turned her head, she realized that she was still a few paces behind, standing frozen on the spot. "What's up?" she asked, letting the door close and going to Selah's side. Selah didn't reply, she merely looked at Kara, her face afraid. Kara put her arms around the girl's shoulders and carefully led her to a bench, where they sat down.

"Just breathe," the hero murmured. "It's okay." After a moment the girl seemed to gather herself again.

"Sorry," she croaked.

"It's okay," Kara replied.

"The cashier," Selah began, looking towards Noonan's. Kara followed the girl's gaze to a red haired woman who looked to be in her late thirties who was behind the counter, working the cash register. "She, um." Selah cleared her throat. "She's my aunt."

"You have an aunt?" the girl nodded, looking at the ground between her feet.

"She came to Earth at the same time as my mother. I lived with her for a little while, when I was a kid. I just... didn't expect to see her."

"Hey, it's okay." The girl looked at Kara, her eyes sad. "We can go to my place instead."

"But your sticky buns," Selah protested.

"I have a stockpile of them in my freezer. It's no problem." She stood up, offering a hand to the girl, who took it after a moment. "Besides, I just ordered a bunch of new teas that I have been dying to try out, you can be my guinea pig."

As they walked the three blocks to Kara's apartment, Selah's smile slowly returned, and there were several times where Kara caught the girl simply staring up at the sky, marveling at what she saw. She still felt a little shaken up about seeing her aunt. It had been so long, and she had accepted long ago that she would never see the woman again. It hadn't crossed her mind yet that she might now. She could tell that Kara was trying her best not to think about Noonan's or her aunt, but she could sense that the hero was confused and curious about what had happened.

Selah didn't quite know what she expected Supergirl's apartment to look like, but as she walked in, she decided that she pictured it to be nothing like Kara's loft, and yet somehow Kara's loft was so perfectly _Kara_.

"So what kind of tea do you want?" Kara asked, throwing her bag and coat down onto a chair, and crossing to the kitchen cabinets. "I have peppermint, ginger, lemon, chai, vanilla, oolong, green tea," she pulled out two mugs and filled them with water, which she zapped with her heat vision to boil them.

"Whatever you're having is fine," Selah replied, sitting down at the island as Kara puttered around with teabags. Eventually, the tea was made, and Kara brought the two mugs over, sitting next to the girl and placing a hand on Selah's knee.

"My mother was an empath," the girl said abruptly. "It's pretty rare, it's caused by a genetic mutation in about one in three million Andromedans. Empath Andromedans can use their telepathy to control other people's emotions, and it's much easier for them to weaponize their abilities. They can alter memories, delete information, essentially take over someone else's brain and shut it down." Selah cleared her throat, staring straight ahead, but not really looking at anything. "They're illegal on Andromeda," she continued. "All empaths are imprisoned or killed. It usually begins to exhibit itself in the mid to late teens, but my mother's manifested itself later than usual, so she managed to stay undetected from the government. Once her family realized what she was becoming, they decided to send her to Earth to protect her, instead of turning her in. My aunt Lea went with her. They landed on Earth when my mother was 21 and my aunt was 26. My mom got pregnant with me less than a year later, and they raised me together until I was five, when they had some big falling out. It was just me and my mom until I was ten, and then she disappeared. I went to live with my aunt until I was fourteen."

"And then after that, you went to the lab?" Kara asked. Selah looked at her for a long moment before nodding, taking a sip of her tea.

"My mother wasn't a good person," she said. "She was so angry about having to leave Andromeda, and her family. She had so much bitterness and anger inside of her-" Selah trailed off, her face unreadable. "My aunt was the only person that I felt like cared about me."

Kara pulled the girl into a hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It's fine," Selah's voice was low. "I just wish that she had been there for me when I needed her to be." She cleared her throat again, looking down at her mug. "This is good tea."

"It's fair trade," the hero replied, sensing that the girl wanted to change the subject. "It comes from Nepal, and all the workers are paid fair wages."

"That's good."

They sat together drinking tea and eating thawed sticky buns, which Kara insisted tasted just as good as fresh ones, until it was time to return to the DEO. Kara gave the girl another hug as they stood up, squeezing her tightly.

"Ow," Selah grinned despite the complaint. "What was that for?"

"I'm glad I met you," Kara replied, smiling back. "You're a good kid."

"I'm not a kid," the girl jutted her chin out defiantly.

"Are too," Kara grabbed her coat, swatting Selah gently with her bag. "You're practically a fetus."

"I take back all the nice things I said about you earlier." Kara put an arm around the girl and they began to walk back to the DEO together, the hero intentionally choosing a route that wouldn't take them past Noonan's.

"Thank you again," Selah said as they reached the DEO.

"Don't mention it," Kara replied. "Anytime you want to have fair trade Nepalese tea with me, you are more than welcome."

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	7. Chapter 7

"Kara?" Nia's voice snapped the hero out of her thoughts and back to the present moment.

"Yes?" She replied, shaking her head slightly. The cub reporter was standing at Kara's desk in CatCo, holding a stack of papers, and looking slightly frazzled.

"I just had a dream flash," Nia said, lowering her voice. "I think it's related to the lab that you raided with the DEO."

"What did you see?" Kara demanded, sitting up in her chair.

"Not much, it was pretty choppy. But I got an address: 138 Cypress Street."

"I'll tell Alex," Kara replied, opening up her phone and calling her sister.

"What's up?" Alex asked, directly upon picking up.

"Can you get Brainy to find 138 Cypress Street?" Kara said. "Nia had a dream flash and thinks it has something to do with Selah and the lab."

"I am on it." Brainy's voice came distantly from the background. After a moment, there was a shuffling sound, and Alex made a indignant noise as Kara assumed Brainy took her phone. "It is in the warehouse district, two blocks away from where we first found Selah."

"I'm setting up a strike team," Alex said, taking her phone back from Brainy. "Meet us there in fifteen minutes?"

"I'll be there."

"Was it any good?" Nia asked, as Kara hung up the phone.

"We're going to go in and check it out. Do you want to come along?"

"Andrea wants me to rewrite some articles and I'm already pushing to make her deadline. Let me know if anything interesting happens, though."

"Will do."

Ten minutes later, Alex's strike team arrived at 138 Cypress Street. The warehouse was nearly identical to the first building that they found Selah in; two stories, painted black, and studded with broken windows. Kara soared in and landed next to Alex as she finished organizing the strike team into position.

"On my mark," she said quietly, signalling to the other agents. "Move in." Kara kicked in the door, and the agents poured into the room, weapons up. It was pitch black in the building, and uncomfortably warm. Alex squinted, trying to make out shapes in the darkness.

"Kara, can you see anything?" she asked, as her sister came to her side.

"Um," Kara answered, turning her head. "I see..." she trailed off. "Oh Rao."

"What is it?" Alex pressed. She had barely finished speaking before the fluorescent overhead lights kicked on, momentarily blinding her. As the spots cleared from her vision, she looked around the room. Nothing seemed out of place upon first glance. Then she noticed the bodies on the floor. There were fifteen of them, neatly lying face up in rows of five, and staring emptily up at the ceiling, each with a bullet hole directly in the center of their forehead. Alex's whole body went cold, despite the heat in the building.

"Are they-" she began, already fearing the answer. Kara nodded stiffly.

"They're all dead." She whispered. The agents stood still for a second, taking in the gravity of the situation.

"Check the whole building for anyone else, dead or alive." Alex ordered. The agents all began moving out through the building. She crossed to the nearest body- a woman who she recognized from the dashboard camera footage they found weeks ago.

"Who did this to you?" She murmured. Nova offered no response.

"Ma'am?" Vasquez asked. Alex turned to see the agent, who was holding a note in a gloved hand. "We found this taped up on the far wall in front of the bodies." She held it out for Alex to see. On it, in swooping red letters was written:

_A gift for you_

_ From The Agenda_

"Bag it up." Alex ordered. Vasquez turned away, and the director looked to her sister, who was still standing by the entrance.

"They're still warm." Kara said quietly. "Whoever did this must have just left."

"Do you think that there's a chance that they're still in the building?" Kara shook her head slowly.

"I scanned it already. No one else is here besides our agents." Alex took a deep breath, thinking as her agents began to regroup together, having finished the search.

"Brainy?" She asked, activating her comm.

"Present," he replied.

"Send out a recon team to this location to scour it for any DNA. Tell them that when they are done they should call the police and get them to process the bodies."

"Right away," he replied.

"Move out," Alex said to her team. She waited for the other agents to file out of the building before leaving hastily, needing a break from the stifling heat and the blank stares of the corpses.

"So the only survivors of our original list were these three?" Alex asked, looking at the list of names and faces in front of her. She, Brainy, and Kara were cross identifying the bodies from the warehouse with the images of the agents that Selah had given them. The two Directors and a doctor were the only ones that had not been found in the warehouse.

"Correct. As well as the third Director who we do not yet have a visual for," Brainy replied.

"Ma'am?" An agent asked, going up to Alex. "The recon team was unable to find any evidence at the scene, DNA or otherwise."

"Nothing?" Alex repeated, her voice frustrated. "Not a single strand of hair, or a fingerprint? In the whole building?"

"I'm sorry." The agent replied. "However, they were able to determine that all of the victims were shot simultaneously, and that we arrived on the scene roughly five to ten minutes after they were killed. We also believe that the bodies were not shot where we found them, but were placed there after the shooting, as there was no blood found anywhere on the first floor."

"So they were killed somewhere else?" Alex asked.

"Yes. Likely on the second floor, there was still no blood, but we found gunpowder residue there."

"So whoever did this shot fifteen people simultaneously, moved all the bodies, mopped the floors, and left within ten minutes?" Kara asked, incredulous.

"That's what our evidence suggests," the agent said.

Kara angrily pushed her hair off her forehead and turned away from the desk, as Brainy and Alex continued questioning the agent and going over the images. She tipped her head upwards and stared at the ceiling, trying to tune out the voices around her. No matter how hard they worked and how much they did, this group- The Agenda- seemed to be just beyond them, just out of reach. It reminded her of CADMUS, with all the violence and mystery. They had checked to make sure that Lillian and CADMUS weren't behind all of this again, but she was safely in prison. A truth seeker had verified that she had no idea what this group was, and that she wasn't involved.

Taking a deep breath, Kara lowered her head again. She noticed Selah standing quietly on the balcony, and decided to join her. They had told Selah about the raid and what they had found as soon as they returned, but the girl was as unreadable as ever, showing no external reaction to the news. Kara didn't quite know how she would expect her to respond to the situation, whether she'd be relieved or scared or angry or some combination of them all, but she was certain that the girl's mind was still reeling with the news.

"I want to see my aunt," Selah said, her back still to Kara as she approached.

"Okay," Kara replied. She leaned on the railing of the balcony as the girl continued to speak.

"She deserves to know what's going on. The Directors are still out there, and they're clearly not afraid to hurt or kill people." Selah's face was serious as she turned to look at Kara, and her voice was quiet. "I don't want her to get hurt because of me."

"We can go over to Noonan's tomorrow." Kara put an arm around the girl's shoulders. "We won't let anything happen to her, I promise."

"I appreciate that Kara, but-" Selah hesitated. "You don't know that you can keep that promise."

The next morning, as promised, Kara went to Noonan's with Selah. The girl was not nearly as lively as the last time they had left the DEO, but Kara still felt a wave of energy rush out from her as they walked out the door.

"Sorry," Selah said, smiling ruefully as Kara shivered.

"You have got to learn to get a handle on that," Kara said, smiling back despite herself.

"I'm just keeping you on your toes."

"How are you feeling?" Kara asked gently, glancing over at Selah as they began walking to the cafe. "You seemed pretty shaken up the last time you saw your aunt."

"I'm okay, I think," Selah answered, scrunching up her face. "I was mostly just caught off guard before. Now that I know I'm going to see her, I'm alright with it." She was quiet for a few moments before adding, "I missed her."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She kicked a pebble into the street. "My mom was an alcoholic when I was a kid, so even when she was around, she was never very consistent. Living with my aunt was the first time anything was really stable in my life."

"I'm sorry," Kara said.

"Don't be. I'm done with apologizing for my mother's bad choices." The girl was silent for the next few blocks, and the closer they got to Noonan's, the more fidgety she became.

"Hey," Kara said, as they walked up to the door, and the girl began cracking her knuckles for the fourth time. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can tell her for you, or Alex can."

"No," Selah replied. "I want to do it." Kara opened the door, and Selah entered the cafe. It was soon after opening, so there were only a few customers in the store, and Selah's aunt was behind the counter as they walked in. She was a tall woman, with dark red hair, broad shoulders, and the same greyish-green eyes as Selah.

"Just a moment please, I'll be right with you," she said, not looking up. Her voice was soft, and had a slight lilt, similar to a French accent. Selah cleared her throat, rubbing her hands together nervously, and the woman finally looked up, slightly irritated. "I said-" she began, but she trailed off in shock upon seeing the girl.

"Hi, Aunt Lea," Selah said quietly.

"Heather," Selah's aunt said, turning to another waitress. "I am taking my break, can you cover the till?" The other woman opened her mouth to protest, but Selah's aunt was already taking off her apron and moving out from behind the counter to go to her niece. She put a hand on the girl's cheek in disbelief, and smiled sadly.

"I thought you were dead," she said quietly. "I looked for you everywhere I could when you were first gone, and I begged your mother to tell me everything that she knew but she would not. By the time she told me, it was too late. Still, I kept trying for years to get you back." She dropped her hand down to her side. "I am so sorry I didn't do more for you, my dear Selah."

"I'm going to go for a walk," Kara said, excusing herself. "Call me if you need anything?"

"Okay," Selah replied. Her aunt led her to a table, and they sat down across from each other.

"Last week, I thought I sensed an Andromedan here but convinced myself I was wrong. It was you?"

"Yes."

"You didn't come inside," she said, a twinge of sadness in her voice. "I cannot say I blame you."

"I wasn't expecting to see you. I was overwhelmed, I suppose."

"Why did you come now?"

"I have something to tell you." Lea tilted her head, her eyes concerned. "The people who took me, they call themselves The Agenda. They're still out there, and I'm afraid they're going to try to get me back. I don't want you to get hurt because they want me."

"If they come for me, I will not tell them where you are," Lea replied, her voice heavy.

"I know." Selah bit her lip, and looked down at the table, studying the wood grain. "My mother?" she asked.

"She is... around. She comes by my apartment sometimes. Never sober. She hasn't been the same since we lost you." Lea hesitated before asking, "Do you-?"

"No." Selah replied evenly. "I don't want to see her." She looked up to meet her aunt's eyes. "Don't tell her you saw me, please."

"Of course." Lea scanned her niece's face, still in disbelief. "You have grown up so much. Thank you for coming to see me."

"I missed you."

"I missed you too. Every day." Angry tears welled up in the woman's eyes. "I should have never let her take you from me, I should have protected you."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Lea," The other waitress said pointedly from the till. "The morning rush will be coming in soon." Lea sighed heavily.

"I will be right there," she said sharply. Pulling out her notepad, she ripped off a piece of paper and scribbled something down on it. "This is where I live," she said, handing it to Selah. "You are welcome whenever you need. I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I will be now."

"Thank you." Selah replied, taking the paper.

"I love you, my dear niece."

"I love you too." Standing up from the table, Lea pulled Selah into a tight hug, until the other waitress cleared her throat loudly.

"I'm sorry, I have to go. Come in any time, I'll give you free sticky buns and coffee whenever you want."

"Okay," Selah said, smiling. Lea put a hand on the girl's cheek again, before going back behind the counter.

"Thank you," Lea repeated, putting on her apron.

"Of course." Selah replied. "I'll come back."

"Good." Her aunt smiled apologetically, and Selah turned to leave, following the trail of Kara's thoughts until she found the reporter sitting on a bench with a hot chocolate.

"Hey!" Kara exclaimed, standing up as she approached. "How'd everything go?"

"She said that I can have free sticky buns for life," Selah offered.

"So amazingly?" Kara asked.

"It... it was good."

"Good."

"Kara, I need to tell you some things about my mom," Selah began, but Kara's phone rang before she could finish.

"Hang on, sorry." Kara said, answering the phone. "Alex, what's up?" she paused. "Okay, I'll be there in five." She hung up and turned back to Selah.

"DEO calls, sorry, we have to head back."

"Okay." Selah replied. "I don't suppose we have time to get me one of those hot chocolates?"

"Sorry, kiddo."

"I'm never giving you any of my free sticky buns." Selah grinned as Kara gasped in feigned horror.

"Sorry, what were you saying before Alex called?" she asked, after she was done clutching at her chest dramatically

"It wasn't important."

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	8. Chapter 8

"What happened?" Kara demanded, landing at the DEO and walking to the main desk.

"Supergirl, hey," Alex said as she saw her sister walking up, looking up from her tablet. "A bombing downtown," she swiped the screen of the tablet, and images of a destroyed overpass were beamed up onto the screens.

"How did this happen?" Kara asked.

"We're not sure. A bomb was attached to the bottom of the overpass, presumably last night. It was detonated twenty minutes ago."

"Any casualties?"

"No. Three people were injured, one seriously, but they're all in stable condition at the hospital."

"Why are we involved with this then? Shouldn't this be in the NCPD's purview?"

"They found this spray-painted on the side of the overpass," Brainy answered, tapping his computer. An image of the overpass popped onto the screen. A capital letter 'a' was written on the bridge, and Kara immediately recognized the font as being the same from the note that they found in the warehouse with the killed doctors.

"The Agenda?" She asked.

"That's what seems to be the case," Alex replied gravely. "That's not all that they found, either." She picked up a Ziplock bag and handed it to Kara. Inside was a letter, the edges of the paper singed but it was still readable. The same swooping red font danced across the page.

'_To the DEO_,' it read. '_We haven't had the pleasure of meeting in person yet, but we would like to formally introduce ourselves. We are The Agenda, pioneers in genetic research. We understand that you may have come into contact with one of our former experimental sites, and a valuable resource of ours has gone missing, her genetic makeup was the focus of our research. If you have any information as to her whereabouts, it would be much appreciated by us. Until she is returned to us safely, we will continue to provide incentive for you to work as fast as you can. Cordially yours, Director Alpha._"

"So they're going to keep blowing up things unless we send Selah back there?" Kara demanded. Brainy and Alex nodded solemnly. "Well that's not happening, so we'd better find them before they can do anything else."

"There's more," Alex said. "There's a watermark on the note, it's subtle but readable. It's just six repeating letters, A, T, C, G, X, and L."

"Is that some kind of code?"

"That's what I thought at first too," Brainy said. "But I ran it through six thousand and forty seven different decoders, and there were no results. Then I showed it to Director Danvers."

"Human DNA is sequenced in four base pairs, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine," Alex began. "It's written out as A, T, C, and G when genomes are sequenced. It's a DNA sequence but it's not human. Kryptonians also have genetic DNA, but their DNA is made up of six base pairs."

"This is a sample of Kryptonian DNA?" Kara demanded.

"Not quite." Alex replied. "The extra Kryptonian base pairs are Xylemine and Yeltranine, according to the data crystals in the Fortress. They would be sequenced as X and Y, but the letter clearly has X and M. Andromedans also have six base pairs, they have Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, Maltisine and Lithosine. Biologically, it's likely that if a Kryptonian-Andromedan child was born, and the two types of DNA merged, Xylemine would pair with Lithosine to create a complete set of DNA."

"Making an A-T-C-G-X-L genome." Kara finished. Alex nodded. "So this definitively says that her father is Kryptonian?"

"Not quite. Daxamites also have X and Y, as well as Valerians and Infernians, but her powers pretty much rule those two out."

"Have we told Selah about the note?" Kara asked.

"Not yet. She went to Noonan's to meet with her aunt for coffee."

"Did we find all the Kryptonians we have on file?"

"Yes," Brainy replied. "There are only fourteen." He tapped his tablet, and the main screen lit up. As he named each Kryptonian, their face appeared on the screen. "The three world-killers, and the three witches of Juru, none of whom are strong contenders for being Selah's birth father, Astra, Non, and four soldiers who arrived with them on Fort Rozz, and, of course, you and your cousin. Now, I have been running some simulations, and they have confirmed that for a Kryptonian-Andromedan child to be conceived outside of a birthing matrix, the second parent would have to be male, so that rules out most of our suspects."

"And Fort Rozz didn't land on Earth until four years after Selah was born," Alex said.

"So whoever Selah's father was isn't in our records."

"That seems to be the case," Brainy admitted.

"Do you still have the inter-space communications system that you set up with Argo?" Kara asked.

"Affirmative," he answered, raising one eyebrow.

"I need to borrow it. I'm going to call my mother."

"Kara," Alura said warmly, her hologram flickering slightly in an empty DEO training room. "It's so good to see you."

"Hi, Mom," Kara replied, smiling. "It's good to see you too."

"What did you need that was so urgent?"

"Were there any other pods that left Krypton before its destruction?" Kara asked. "Besides Kal-El's and mine?"

"None on file," Alura replied. "We have a record of all the pods that entered or exited our ports, and the only ones recorded from that day were the two of you. However, it's possible that there were others that were not logged. We weren't aware of Reign's pod, after all. Why do you ask?"

"We're trying to identify a Kryptonian male who was here about 20 years ago, and don't have any matches in the system. No one left Argo to come to Earth, did they?" Alura shook her head.

"20 years ago, we were nowhere near being stable enough to support extra-planetary travel," she said.

"So how could another Kryptonian have made it to Earth?"

"There were probably a few Kryptonians off-world at the time of the explosion. Perhaps they found their way to Earth somehow."

"I hadn't thought of that," Kara said, frowning. "Maybe I'll call Kal-El. He was on Earth then."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Thanks anyways. I love you."

"I love you too, Kara." The hologram disappeared, and Kara sighed, beginning to head back to the atrium. Selah would be getting back from Noonan's soon, and Kara and Alex had agreed to tell her about the message from the Agenda together. The girl had alluded to the existence of her father before, but she had said that she didn't know who he was and that she had never met him. Kara wasn't expecting her to be able to solve that mystery for them, but she and Alex had decided that the girl deserved to know what was going on, as it did directly impact her.

"Kara, hey," Alex said as she walked into the atrium. "Any leads?"

"Nope." Kara replied flatly. Alex sighed.

"Selah just got back, she's in the lab. Should we head over?" The hero nodded, and together, they went over to the lab that Selah was staying in. She still had seizures occasionally, usually at night. Because of this, Alex insisted that she stay at the DEO for the time being, mostly because they knew she had nowhere else to go. The girl grumbled about it, but Kara was fairly certain that she didn't mind it as much as she pretended to. Coming up to the door to Selah's room, Alex knocked gently.

"Hey," Selah said, shutting her book. Kara recognized it as being a part of Winn's old collection about the space-time continuum.

"Hi," Kara replied, glancing over at her sister. "We have to talk to you about something."

"The Agenda did something, right?" Selah asked. "Alex and Brainy tried to shield it from me, but they're not very good at that."

"Rude," Alex muttered. "Yes. They bombed an overpass."

"Why?"

"They're trying to manipulate us into sending you back to them. Which is never going to happen, by the way." Selah looked at the floor and was quiet for a moment, before asking,

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"Three people were injured, but they're going to be okay," Kara replied. Sensing the girl's uncertainty, she sat down on the bed next to her, placing a hand on her knee. "Hey. This is not your fault," she said.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Selah asked, still not looking up.

"Yes," Alex said, exchanging a look with Kara. "Do you have any other information about who your father might be? The Agenda sent us a message saying that your 'unique genetic makeup and parenthood' was part of the reason they were doing tests on you, and we're a little worried that they might try and target your father to get to you." Selah shook her head slowly.

"From what my aunt told me, my parents only met once. They lived near Metropolis then, in Metrodale. Once my mom found out that she was pregnant with me, she and my aunt left to come to National City."

"Would your aunt know anything more about him?"

"Probably not. She never met him either, and my mother was very secretive." She tilted her head slightly. "You think he's from Krypton?"

"Yes." Alex said. "And don't read my mind."

"Sorry," she said, biting back a smile. "Do you need to do a blood test or something? Would that help to find him?"

"We already know that whoever he is, he's not in our system." Kara replied. "So it wouldn't get any matches."

"Okay." Selah hesitated before adding, "let me know if you find anything, okay?"

"Of course, love."

Kara sat at her desk at CatCo, fidgeting with pens and paperclips, and playing Minesweeper on her computer, avoiding work at all costs. It's not that she didn't have work to do, or even that she was uninterested in the articles that she was writing- a piece on a potential cure for a rare form of brain cancer being one of them- she just couldn't seem to focus on anything other than Selah, and the question of who her father was.

Pulling out her phone, Kara excused herself from her desk and decided to call Kal-El.

"Hey, Kara," he said upon picking up. "What's going on?"

"I was just wondering if you could help me with something we're working on at the DEO, she said, walking out onto the balcony. "We're trying to ID an unknown Kryptonian male who was alive in the Metropolis area around 20 years ago."

"Can't say anyone comes to mind," Kal-El replied. "They don't match anyone in the DEO database?"

"No, we ruled out everyone we have on file."

"Has J'onn done a psychic scan of the Earth for Kryptonian life forms?"

"Yeah," Kara said, pushing up her glasses. "The only ones who showed up were me and you. Whoever it is must not be on Earth anymore."

"Weird." Kal-El said. "What do you need this guy for? I'm always down for a team-up." Kara bit her lip, thinking about how to reply.

"It's a long story," she said. "Basically, we found an illegal lab recently, they call themselves The Agenda. We raided one of their bases and found a girl who was their test subject. She's half Kryptonian, and we're trying to find out who her father is."

"And she's twenty years old?"

"Nineteen."

"Kara, what race was her mother? Is this girl half human?" Kal-El demanded, his voice urgent.

"Um, no," Kara replied. "Her mother was from Andromeda." The line was silent for several moments. "Kal? What's wrong?"

"I think I should go to National City. I'll be at the DEO at three." Before Kara could reply, the line went dead, and she stared at her phone in surprise.

Ten minutes later, she was flying through the doors of the DEO.

"Where's Alex?" She asked the first agent she saw, a young, gangly, blond man. He turned very red at the sight of her, and pointed towards the lab Selah was in. "Thanks." She strode over to the medical bay and opened Selah's door.

"Alex?" She asked.

"She just went on break," Selah said. She was sitting on the counter reading a book and eating a sticky bun. "What's going on? Why is Superman coming?"

"Don't read my mind," Kara said on reflex. "I'm not sure. I need to talk to Alex."

"Okay," Selah said, going back to her book. Kara left the lab to go to the break room, but she bumped into Alex in the hallway on the way there.

"Hey," Kara said, relieved. "I need to talk to you, something weird is going on."

"What's up?" Alex asked, instantly on guard. Kara relayed her phone call with Kal-El to her sister, including his cryptic goodbye.

"I don't know what's going on, or why he got so weird about it."

"It sound's like he knows something about Selah's birth father," Alex said, frowning slightly.

"Ma'ams?" The awkward blond agent was back, looking redder than the last time Kara saw him. "Um, Superman is here to see you?"

"Thanks, O'Neil," Alex said. "Can you tell Hamilton that I need her to be on call in block A until I relieve her?"

"Yes, Ma'am." He scurried away, and the sisters walked to the foyer of the DEO.

"Kal," Kara said, seeing her cousin standing by the desk. "What's going on? Why did you come here?"

"I need to talk to you both," he said, walking to an empty conference room. The three sat down at the table, and Kal-El closed the door.

"You're staring to scare me, Kal," Kara said. "What's going on?"

"You have her in custody right now, right?" Nineteen years old, half Kryptonian, half Andromedan?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "She's been here since the sixteenth. Clark, do you know anything about her father?"

"I'm the father," Kal-El said, wincing. "At least, I think so."

"What?" Kara sputtered.

"How is that possible?" Alex demanded.

"I had just gotten my first promotion at the Planet, and I went out for drinks to celebrate." He said. "I met a girl, an Andromedan. Her name was Lyla, we bumped into each other at the bar, and we started talking. Lois and I were on a break, and Lyla was so beautiful." He trailed off, getting lost in his thoughts. "It was just the one night. She disappeared after that. I tried finding her, but she must have left the city."

"So you think that Lyla..." Alex began

"She's the mother," Kal-El said. "She must be." The room was silent for a long moment, the only noise the steady ticking of Alex's watch.

"We have to tell Selah," Kara said. "She deserves to know."

"I know," Kal-El said, looking slightly overwhelmed. "Is she here right now?"

"Yeah," Kara hesitated. "Do you want to meet her?" He nodded slowly.

"I do. Nineteen years is already too long." They stood and walked to the lab in silence, all still digesting the information.

"Do you want to go in alone?" Kara asked her cousin as they approached the door. He turned to her, his face pale.

"Come with me?" he asked.

"Of course." Alex opened the door, and together the three adults entered the room.

"Hey, Alex," Selah said as they walked in. "I sneezed really hard and I think I broke your stethoscope." She looked up to see Kara and Kal-El standing in the doorway with Alex. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi," Kal-El said. The girl tilted her head slightly as she absorbed the thoughts of the three adults.

"You're my..." she trailed off.

"Your father." He finished, his voice quiet. "At least, I think so. Your mother?"

"Lyla Lerrol." Selah bit her lip. "This makes a lot of sense, honestly."

"What do you mean?" Kara asked.

"One of the first things they did when they got me was to try and..." she paused, weighing her words. "Inseminate me? They tried to get me pregnant hundreds of times, with different races and species. None of them worked, so they eventually declared me 'medically infertile' and moved on to other experiments." She cleared her throat. "It just never made sense to me why they tried so hard, and why they chose me for that, over any other alien. But with me, if they could make an army out of Superman's grandchildren-" She stopped abruptly, clearing her throat again. Kara moved to the bed and sat down next to Selah, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I think she needs some space, Clark," Alex murmured, going to Kal-El. They quietly left the room, leaving Kara and Selah alone.

"My mother knew who he was," Selah said, not looking at Kara. "That he was Superman. She must have. That's why she sold me to them."

"Your mother?" Kara asked gently.

"That's how I got there," she said, her voice small. "My mother took me from my aunt and signed custody over to the Directors, knowing what they wanted me for."

"Selah," Kara breathed, pulling her into a hug. "I'm so sorry."

"I was fourteen," Selah whimpered. Kara didn't know how long they sat like that for, with her arms wrapped around the girl as she cried into her shoulder, but her heart broke for Selah, for all the ways that she had been hurt.

.

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	9. Chapter 9

"That's a dangling participle." Kara was so engrossed in the article that she was writing that it took her several moments to realize that Selah had spoken. She looked up from her laptop, blinking, and saw the girl leaning against the doorway of the conference room with a book in her hands. It had still only been a few months since the girl had come to the DEO, but she had changed so much in that time. She had put on weight, and she looked so much healthier than the skeletal, pale girl who showed up covered in bruises and scars. Her hair was growing quickly, and flopped into her eyes in orangey curls. Her posture had changed, and she carried herself with more confidence and strength.

"What?" Kara asked.

"Your last sentence," the girl replied, idly flipping a page. "It's a dangling participle." She cleared her throat and quoted Kara's article: "_If they are successful in placing these charges, the Phoenix Roadsters will no longer be produced by Keystone Motors. _Phoenix Roadsters is the closest subject to the modifier, so it makes it seems like the cars are placing charges, instead of the people involved in the accidents." Kara sighed heavily and began backspacing.

"Did you come here just to critique my writing, or are there any developments in the case with the Agenda?" she grumbled.

"No, sorry," Selah replied. "It was just too loud in the medical wing, so I was looking for someplace quieter to read. Mind if I join you?"

"Only if you stop pointing out my grammatical errors." The girl smirked and sat down at the table across from Kara. "Can I ask you something?" Kara asked.

"Sure," Selah replied, setting down her book on astrophysics.

"The Agenda took you when you were fourteen, right?" The girl nodded. "How do you know so much about grammar and science? Did you go to school there?"

"No," Selah replied. "I've always been a quick learner, I guess. I skipped three grades in school, so I was almost graduated high school by the time they took me. And I learned some stuff about biology and medicine just from reading the doctors at the lab, before they made the power dampener." Kara leaned back in her chair, thinking.

"Would you want to go back to school?" She asked. "Not high school, probably, I think you're beyond that. But we could get Brainy to make some documents and transcripts for you, and enroll you in college."

"Really?"

"Definitely."

"I'd really like that," Selah bit her lip, clearing her throat slightly. "Also your article has so many comma splices, and I feel like I have to say something." Kara shut her laptop and glared at Selah, who quickly reopened her book, pretending not to notice.

"I was going to talk to Kal-El this week," she said suddenly. "Is there anything you'd like me to tell him?" Selah began fiddling with the edges of a page from the book, not looking up.

"I don't think so," she said evenly. "Does his family know about me yet?"

"Lois does. His sons don't know yet." Selah nodded. "Hey, I know this is weird and it all came as a shock. I'm not going to tell you how you should feel or how to react. But Kal is a good man, and he's good with Jonathan and Jordan."

"I know. I just never had a dad, and now I have one, and a step mother and half brothers, and it's just all a lot to take in."

"You also have me," Kara said, smiling. "I'm your paternal first cousin once removed."

"What a close relation." Selah quipped.

"I'm serious!" Kara protested. "I thought I lost all of my biological family. It's pretty cool to find out that I have more." The girl nodded slowly, her eyes serious. Finally she stood up, shutting her book.

"I'm going to my aunt's for dinner tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Kara reopened her laptop. "Are you going to ask her about maybe moving back in with her once Alex gives the okay for you to be released?"

"I think so," Selah replied, smiling. "Things have been so good with us, and she really wants to try again. She was definitely trying to suggest it the last time we got coffee, too. She kept thinking about her spare bedroom in her apartment and how nice it is that I'm back in her life."

"Good. Tell her I say hi, alright?"

"Okay." Selah began to go, but hesitated when she reached the door. "Tell Kal that I say hi when you see him, okay?"

"I will."

Selah raked a hand through her hair as she unlocked the door to her aunt's apartment building with the spare key Lea had given her, and she made a mental note to ask Kara to trim the back again, to keep her from re-growing a mullet. Humming slightly, she took the stairs two at a time up to the seventh floor, where her aunt lived. It had been a good day. She had finished her book, and she and Brainy played telepathic chess for most of the morning. She had been so used to being alone that she had forgotten the warmth that came with having people who cared about her.

"Aunt Lea?" She asked, unlocking the door to her aunt's apartment. It was dark inside, and she initially assumed that no one was home until she sensed-

"You little bitch." Selah whirled to see her mother sitting at the table, her head resting on her arms.

"What are you doing here?" she asked evenly. "Aunt Lea said you don't live with her anymore."

"I let myself in."

"Does she know you're here?" Her mother didn't reply, she just sat up slowly and turned to look at her daughter, her pale eyes glowing in the moonlight. Wordlessly, she stood and walked to Selah, placing a hand on the girl's cheek gently.

"You ruined my life, did you know that?" The girl's stomach curled at the smell of alcohol wafting off of her mother, and she took a step away from the woman.

"You're drunk, Mother," she said.

"Shut up!" Lyla yelled, her hand turning into a fist. "Shut up!" Selah took a step towards the door, but her mother flicked her head to the left and it slammed shut, the lock clicking into place. The girl felt the familiar feeling of Lyla concentrating her power and beginning to drain Selah's away.

"Mom," she began carefully, feeling her powers weaken. "Please think about what you're doing." Before she could even blink, her mother was standing directly in front of her, their faces mere inches apart.

"How dare you speak to me that way," she hissed. "You have no idea what you put me through. New to this world, pregnant with a baby I didn't want, from a man I knew nothing about. You took everything from me, and you have the _gall_ to stand in front of me here, to come into my sister's home." She shook her head angrily, glaring at her daughter. Selah didn't reply, she just stared squarely back at her mother, waiting for her to make her next move.

Suddenly, Lyla's hand flashed up and struck her across the face, sending her reeling. A second blow came and she fell to the floor, where a sharp pain blossomed along her rib cage as her mother kicked her. Rolling out of her mother's reach, Selah staggered to her feet and swallowed down the blood in her mouth.

"You're drunk, mother," she repeated. "Please calm down."

"Don't you _dare_ tell me what to do," her mother hissed. She grabbed Selah's arm fiercely and began striking the girl in the face, anywhere that she could make contact- her nose, her eyes, her mouth. Eventually, she shoved the girl back onto the ground, where she landed awkwardly, pain exploding in her wrist as something cracked. Her mother stood still for a second, towering over Selah and breathing heavily, just looking down at the girl. Selah took the opportunity to mentally take inventory of her injuries. Her left eye was swelling, her lip and nose were bleeding, and she had a small cut on her left cheek. She had bitten down hard on the inside of her cheek, which was also bleeding freely, and she resisted the urge to spit out a mouthful of blood. Her ribs were aching, probably some were broken, and her wrist was beginning to go numb.

Her mother took another step forward, raising her foot back, about to kick Selah in the face, when-

"Lyla?" The door was open, and Lea was standing in the doorway, her face horrified. Lyla's foot sank back down to the floor, and she looked almost guilty.

"You're not supposed to be home yet," she said. Lea rushed to Selah's side and helped her sit up gently. Selah hissed in pain, her ribs aching.

"I'm so sorry," Lea said. "I was held up at the coffee shop at close, I tried to text you but I didn't have service. I didn't know that she was here."

"I'm okay," Selah whispered.

"You are not okay," Lea countered. She turned to her sister, her eyes blazing with anger. "How could you do this, Lyla? After everything that you have put this girl through?" Lyla didn't reply, she just rolled her eyes petulantly, and went back over to the table, putting her head back down.

"I'm-" Selah began, coughing a bit. "I'm going to go."

"What?" Lea demanded, turning back to her niece. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry. I just have to go," she stammered, making her way to her feet.

"Selah, don't be ridiculous, you're hurt-"

"I'm fine, really."

"Selah," Lea began, but Selah was already opening the door.

"I'm sorry," she said. The door closed, and Lea didn't follow. Making her way to the elevator, Selah took several deep breaths, feeling her ribs twinge with each inhale. She pulled her hood up over her head in an attempt to hide her injuries and tried to decide what to do. Her powers were gone and they probably wouldn't be back until morning at the earliest, and her whole body ached. She was dizzy, and the idea of walking across town to the DEO made her feel nauseous. Taking another deep breath and ignoring the screaming pain in her ribs, she exited the elevator and began walking to an address that she knew was only a few blocks away.

.

Kara had just settled in for what she thought would be a calm and uneventful evening when a hesitant knock came at the door. She glanced through the door to see Selah on the other side, with three cracked ribs and a broken wrist.

"Oh Rao," she muttered, rushing to the door and pulling it open

"I'm sorry," the girl stammered, shifting her weight anxiously from one foot to the other. "I didn't know where else to go."

"Come in," Kara said, pulling her into the apartment and shutting the door. "What happened?" She guided the girl into a chair at the kitchen table, and went to get her emergency first-aid kit that a well-meaning neighbor had gifted her years ago. Setting that on the table, she went back into the kitchen and got a bag of ice and a damp cloth. "I thought you were going to your aunt's for dinner."

"I did," Selah answered, her voice small.

"Lea did this?" Kara asked incredulously, opening the first aid kit.

"No. My mom was there."

"She did this," Kara said heavily.

"Yeah." Selah nodded slowly, not making eye contact with the hero.

"Let me see," Kara said, gently tipping up the girl's chin with her thumb to see the extent of her injuries. Selah's bottom lip and left cheek were both split open, still bleeding sluggishly. Her cheek was badly bruised and swollen. There was a gash at her temple, her hair was matted with blood, and Kara could see fingerprint shaped bruises up and down her left forearm. Her fractured wrist was purple and nearly doubled in size. "We should go to the DEO," she said. "You need to get under some sun lamps to get your powers back."

"Please no," Selah whimpered.

"Love, you need more medical help than I can offer with this first-aid kit. You need Alex, or another doctor." The girl's bottom lip began to tremble and Kara took a deep breath.

"Alex will kill me for this," she muttered. "I'm offering a compromise. You're staying here for the night. I have a miniature yellow sun lamp that Brainy made me, and you are not going to move from under that until morning. If you don't start getting better, and if your powers aren't back by the morning, I am flying you straight to the DEO, whether you like it or not."

"Okay." Selah said. Kara handed Selah the ice pack, and she placed it on her wrist, wincing slightly. Picking up the cloth, the hero began gently cleaning the cut on the girl's cheek.

"Why did she do this?" she asked carefully.

"She was drunk. She started yelling at me, saying I ruined everything and grabbing at me. I didn't fight back and I think that made her even angrier.

"Hey," Kara said, putting a hand on Selah's cheek. "You didn't deserve any of this."

"I know," the girl replied hollowly. "My aunt showed up eventually. I don't know how long my mother would have kept going if she hadn't." Kara kept painstakingly cleaning the blood off the girl's face, trying her best not to poke at the cuts and bruises too much. Selah didn't make much eye contact, she stared at her hands as they fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, and Kara pretended not to see the tears that spilled silently from the girl's eyes.

Eventually, the hero set the cloth back down on the table, once the girl's face was mostly clean again. Selah cleared her throat and straightened up a little bit in the chair.

"Is it alright if I take a shower?" she asked. "I'd like to get the blood out of my hair."

"Of course," Kara replied, going to a dresser and pulling out the spare pyjamas that Alex always borrowed when she stayed overnight. "There's towels in there, and you can change into these when you're done. I'll see if we need to bandage your face or arm once you're out."

"Thanks." Selah took the pyjamas and made her way to the bathroom, holding her injured arm close to her body. Kara heard the shower turn on after a few moments, and she started packing up her first-aid kit again, rinsing out the bloody cloth and wiping down the table, all the while carefully monitoring the girl's heartbeat to make sure she was alright. Once the table was clear, she sank down on the couch and pulled out her phone. She sent a few paragraphs to Alex, detailing what had happened and why Selah wasn't going to be at the DEO for the night. Alex replied quickly, clearly in doctor mode

'_You'll have to check on her every few hours through the night, because she probably has a head_ injury.' She said. '_Give her lots of fluids and if ANYTHING at all changes with her, take her in right away, especially if she's having seizures. Text me updates please._'

'_I will_,' Kara replied.

'_Also give her a hug from me._'

'_Okay_.'

The shower turned off again, and after a few moments, Selah emerged from the bathroom, her hair damp but blood-free.

"Hey," Kara said. "Feeling any better?" Selah shrugged and sat on the opposite end of the couch, not looking Kara in the eye.

"Sorry for barging in on you," she said after a moment. "You shouldn't have to take care of me like this."

"You're family," the hero replied simply. "And you are not a burden. I care about you, Selah. I'm glad you came here."

"Okay." Selah said quietly. "I guess I'm not going to be moving in with my aunt any time soon," she added after a moment. Kara crossed to Selah's end of the couch and wrapped her arms around the girl.

"I'm sorry, love," she murmured. "For everything that happened tonight." Selah leaned into Kara's shoulder.

"Me too," she replied, yawning widely.

"Ready for bed?" Kara asked. Selah nodded wearily, sitting up. "Are you okay on the couch? I'd give you the bed, but the lamp is plugged in by the couch, and when it gets unplugged it takes an hour to recalibrate itself-"

"The couch is perfect, Kara."

"Okay." Kara stood up and got spare blankets out of her linen closet, switching on the yellow sun lamp as she went. When she returned to the couch, Selah was already lying on the couch, asleep under the soft yellow glow of the lamp. Kara spread the blanket over the girl, gently placed a kiss on her forehead, and went into her bedroom, pulling the curtain shut behind her to offer the girl some privacy. She sat on her bed, just staring at the curtain and absently listening to Selah's heartbeat for awhile, processing everything that had just happened. Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up to see Alex was calling.

"Al, I told you already. Selah's fine, she's asleep on the couch-" she began.

"It's not that," Alex interrupted, urgency in her voice. "The Agenda just sent us another letter. They know we have Selah, and they said they are going to bomb every major residential apartment building in the city unless we send her back to them.

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	10. Chapter 10

"You're sure this is okay?" Selah asked for the umpteenth time, setting down a cardboard box.

"Yes," Nia said decisively, rolling her eyes to Kara. "I am absolutely sure. Yvette already moved out a month ago to go star on Broadway, and I was going to start looking into sublets anyways."

"I just know that this is a lot in general, and you're being really gracious and I don't want to overstay my welcome."

"You are not overstaying anything. I miss having a roommate."

"Okay," Selah said, clearly still unconvinced.

"Besides," Kara interjected. "The DEO are the ones covering your rent for the first year, until you get onto your feet. It's the same scholarship that's giving you a full ride at National City University this year."

"Thank you again for that," the girl said, bumping Kara's shoulder gently.

"Don't mention it." She went to pick up the cardboard box, ignoring Selah's protests. "Your arm isn't fully healed yet, you shouldn't be lifting," she reminded.

"I carried it up here," Selah grumbled.

"And that is something that I am certain Alex would chastise you for, were she here." Nia led the other two to Yvette's old bedroom, a smallish room furnished only with a beat up dresser and a twin bed.

"This is mine?" the girl asked, looking to Kara.

"Yep," the hero replied. "It's all I could get at such short notice, but I think that we'll be able to get you a desk as well."

"That's a nice touch," Selah gestured to a well-worn poster of Justin Timberlake circa 2000 that hung on the wall above the dresser.

"I flew to Midvale to get it from Eliza. That is a Kara Danvers childhood heirloom."

"I'm honored."

"Don't be rude. I'd love to stay and help you unpack, but I have a DEO meeting in five minutes that I shouldn't be late for."

"Okay." Selah took the box from Kara and set it on the bed. "Thank you again."

"You're welcome." The two hugged before Kara left, kissing her hand and touching it to Justin Timberlake's cheek as she left.

"That's all you have to move in?" Selah turned to the door to see Nia leaning against the frame.

"I was actually about to head over to Noonan's to get some stuff from my aunt. She still has things from when I lived with her, and she said I could pick it up. We decided it was best that she didn't know where I'm staying, in case my mom tries to read it off of her." Selah fiddled with her keys for a second. "Do you want to come along?"

"I'd love to." Nia paused for a moment. "Just so we're both on the same page, you can hear my thoughts all the time, right?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

Together, the two left Nia's apartment and began walking towards Noonan's, talking idly about Star Wars and the DEO as they went. Nia lived even closer to the coffee shop than Kara, so they were soon approaching the door.

Selah's aunt looked up as the bell over the door rang, and her face brightened at the sight of her niece.

"Hi, aunt Lea," Selah said quietly. "This is my friend, Nia." Nia waved to the woman, who smiled politely. Lea carefully put a hand on Selah's cheek, gently tracing the bruises that had almost completely faded away, her face hard. "I'm fine. I swear."

"I'm going to go check out that hot chocolate cart that Kara mentioned to me," Nia said, carefully excusing herself. Selah smiled gratefully as her friend left, leaving just her and her aunt.

"I told her that she was no longer welcome in my home, and I changed the locks," Lea said. "Not like that will stop her, she didn't have a key before."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I failed to protect you when you were a child, and I still fail now." The woman's eyes filled up with tears, and she angrily wiped at them. "I am truly sorry."

"I know," Selah said, taking her aunt's hand. "I forgive you." Lea pulled the girl into a tight embrace, pulling back quickly once she sensed Selah's pain from her still-healing ribs.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. Turning behind the register, she picked up a duffel bag and a box of sticky buns, placing them atop the counter. "These were all of your things that I still had around. Your mother got rid of a lot of it, and I'm sure some of the clothes no longer fit you, but I thought that you deserved to have it. And the buns are for you and your friend." Finally, she pulled a single key out of her uniform pocket and handed it to Selah. "This is for my new set of locks. I want you to have one.

"Thank you, Aunt Lea."

"Of course, my dear."

"I'll come by again soon," Selah promised, picking up the bag. "I enrolled in the university, and campus isn't too far from here."

"It's across town," Lea replied.

"Yeah, well. I am faster than a speeding bullet." Her aunt pulled her into another hug, much more gently this time, and the girl left the restaurant to find Nia not too far away, sitting on a bench.

"Hey," she exclaimed as Selah approached. "Did you get your things?" Selah lifted up the bag as proof, and opened the box of sticky buns.

"Want one?" she asked, holding the box out.

"Always." They both managed to eat two buns before returning to the apartment, where Selah placed the duffel bag onto the dresser and began unpacking the cardboard box from the DEO. She had only put the clothes that Alex and Kara had gotten her into it, but at the bottom she found a set of books on the space-time continuum that Winn had left behind. She placed them on top of the dresser, smiling, as she put the clothes into a drawer and threw the empty box into a corner.

Turning to the duffel bag, she took a deep breath before unzipping it. There wasn't much in it, only some clothes, most of which looked to be too small, and a threadbare, stuffed purple elephant that she remembered playing with when she was little. Picking up one of the shirts, she realized it was wrapped around something square and heavy. Pulling the fabric off, she found her childhood photo album. The first page was a photo of her as a baby, with her mother holding her, smiling.

Pulling open an empty drawer, she dropped the photo album inside, quickly shutting it again before going to find Nia.

.

"Selah doesn't know about this yet, right?" Alex asked, leaning on the desk at the DEO.

"I tried to hide it in my thoughts," Kara replied, rubbing her forehead. "But I don't know if she still saw it or not. She didn't say anything about it if she does." There had already been two bomb threats that the DEO had stopped, and they had constant guards around the main buildings that the Agenda might be targeting. However, the few culprits that they had managed to get into custody were refusing to talk, and they had some kind of psychic inhibitors that prevented J'onn from being able to read their minds. "What are we going to do about this?" she asked wearily. "Obviously we can't let Selah go back there, but I have no idea how to stop these bombings when they're happening all over town and we have no way of knowing when they're going to be or where."

"We just have to keep having tactical teams on the street, surveilling the sites. Hopefully that will be enough," Alex replied. "Brainy is running constant scans of all the traffic cam footage in the city to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. We've also made the NCPD aware of the threats, and they are responding appropriately."

"Do you think that Lyla is still in contact with the Agenda?" Kara asked. "It does seem a little suspicious that as soon as she sees Selah, the Agenda knows where she is."

"I thought that too," Alex answered. "That's why I'm having Brainy scan traffic footage for her, and why we've filed an arrest warrant against her."

"What?" Kara demanded, whirling to face her sister. "Are you serious?"

"She assaulted Selah, for one thing, and we also have probable reason to believe that she is involved with a terrorist organization. At the very least, she was involved with them in the past, so we could try to get information about them through her."

"Don't you think that we should tell Selah about this before we arrest her mother?"

"We'll tell her if we get Lyla in custody. For the time being, I think she's already overwhelmed enough by the situation." Kara rubbed her eyes in frustration as Brainy burst into the room.

"Ma'ams?" He asked. "We just had a third bomb threat, at Magnolia and Reed Street. Two more suspects are coming into custody."

"Did anything come of the threat?" Alex asked.

"Negative. Our agents were able to thwart their attempts," Brainy replied.

"Good. Keep me updated." Kara watched as Brainy left the room again, frustration building up inside her.

"There must be more that we can be doing," she said, gripping the edge of the table with her hands. "There must be something that we are missing that we can be doing."

"This is why we need Lyla in custody. If she can tell us anything about the Agenda that will help us predict what they are going to do next, we can get ahead of all of this. Start being proactive instead of reactive." Alex sighed, running a hand through her hair. "That is, if she tells us anything at all."

.

"Kara?" Selah asked, opening the door to her new apartment to see her paternal first cousin once removed on the other side.

"Hey!" Kara exclaimed, grinning. "I thought I'd just stop by and see how you're settling in, and- oh Rao, do I smell sticky buns?" Rolling her eyes, Selah let the hero into the apartment.

"Help yourself," she said. "I went to get some stuff from my aunt, and she gave me goodies as well." Kara began eating a bun, and set another onto a plate.

"Did you get everything unpacked?" she asked, spewing crumbs across the kitchen.

"Yeah," Selah replied. "Thanks for the books."

"Alex put them in, I can't take credit for that." Kara took a large bite of the second bun, and sighed happily. "Is Justin Timberlake still up?"

"I put him in the closet. I felt like he was going to watch me sleep."

"The dream," Kara muttered through a mouthful of sticky bun, and Selah swatted her arm.

"How was your meeting?"

"Fine. Just going over some leads." Selah tilted her head to the left, her brow furrowing, but before she could ask anything, the entire apartment was rocked by an explosion. Nia ran into the kitchen, and the three all looked at each other in silence for an instant, before rushing out of the apartment. Exiting the building, they saw the small two-story brownstone apartment across the street engulfed in flames, the front wall decimated.

"Oh, Rao." Kara murmured, her eyes wide. Nia pulled out her phone and began dialing 911 as Kara changed into her Supergirl outfit and tried her best to extinguish the flames. Selah wasn't sure how long she stood there, frozen on the spot, just watching the building burn, but eventually Nia rejoined her and put an arm around her shoulder. The flames licked up the side of the building, and eventually the other three walls crumbled, leaving the building nothing more than a smoldering pile of rubble. Kara had put out the fire for the most part, and the emergency responders had arrived and were taking statements as ash floated on the gentle breeze like snowflakes.

"Why did they do this?" Selah whispered. No one answered.

.

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	11. Chapter 11

"This isn't your fault," Alex insisted, but the words barely registered in Selah's mind. They were in a conference room at the DEO, and the girl was staring down at the metal table she was seated at, refusing to make eye contact with the agent. "Selah?" Alex asked. She didn't move. Alex sighed, standing up and walking over to her. She leaned against the table next to where Selah was sitting, and put a hand on the girl's shoulder, who stiffened slightly, but didn't pull away.

"Have you heard anything else from the Agenda?" She asked in a low voice, still not looking up.

"No," Alex replied. "But there was the letter 'A' spray painted on the basement floor of the apartments that were bombed."

"How many more bomb threats have come in?"

"Two more since yesterday," Selah winced. "But there have been no casualties."

"Yet," the girl muttered darkly.

"Selah." Alex said seriously. "This isn't your fault."

"You can say that all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that this is happening because of me." She finally lifted her gaze, looking Alex directly in the eye. "If I was still at that lab, none of this would be going on at all."

"You were abused and mistreated, and now they are trying to manipulate you and us in order to get you to return to an incredibly harmful environment. You deserve better than that."

"Maybe I don't get to have better than that." Selah looked away again, this time focusing her stare on the wall directly ahead of her.

"Don't say that."

"It's the truth." Her jaw tightened, and she jutted her chin out slightly. "I can't stand by and do nothing while everyone is being put into danger because of me."

"We aren't doing nothing. We have upped our patrols, the police department is helping out, and the FBI are talking about joining as well. Not to mention Kara and J'onn and Dreamer, who are also doing all they can to prevent anything else from happening." Selah didn't say anything, she just kept staring ahead, her face hard. After a few moments of silence, Alex squeezed the girl's shoulder gently and straightened up. "I'll keep you updated, alright?" Selah simply nodded.

She sat alone in the conference room for a long time, completely still. Her mind, however, was a whirlwind of activity. She was scanning as far as her telepathy could reach, trying to find anyone from the lab, at the same time as she was trying to come up with a plan. She was so focused on her task that she didn't notice the door to the conference room open.

"Thinking pretty hard, eh?" She whirled to see J'onn standing in the doorway, his eyes gentle. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just sensed a lot of psychic energy from this room."

"I'm listening for them," she said curtly. "There has to be something useful that I can do." He smiled and walked to the table.

"Did you know that Andromedans and Kryptonians are one of the few races that Martians cannot psychically connect with?" he asked, sitting down next to Selah. She glanced at him quickly before going back to staring at the wall.

"I can still hear you," she said. "It's different than human thoughts, though. Yours have more-" she hesitated, choosing her words. "Emotion. Colors." J'onn smiled, leaning back in his chair.

"Then I'm sure that you hear my thoughts of Mars," he said. Selah nodded. "I stood by and did nothing as my people were killed, my wife and daughters burned." The girl turned her head, finally looking at J'onn. "It took me many years to come to terms with that. But I now know that if I had resisted, or to tried to act up against the atrocities that the White Martians were committing, I would not have been able to change anything. They would have killed me, like they killed so many others, and I would have never been able to get away and come to Earth." He cleared his throat and paused for a moment, before continuing. "It was my survival that allowed things to change on Mars, for people like M'gann and other White Martians to see that there were still Greens left. For them to try and make changes to the way that things are on Mars, to right the wrongs that were done." He turned to face Selah, his eyes serious. "If I had died on Mars, there would not have been that change. My survival is what allowed for Mars to improve. Do you understand?" Selah nodded.

"How did you get past it?" she asked quietly, looking down at her hands. "The shame of doing nothing."

"I thought of my family," he replied. "They would not wish for me to be ashamed of the fact that I am alive. They would want me to be happy." He leaned forwards, looking intently at Selah. "There is no shame in survival." The girl nodded again, glancing up at him. J'onn smiled, and put a hand on her shoulder, standing up. "I'm going to go see what I can do to help," he said, smiling at the girl one last time before exiting the room.

.

"I can walk home by myself," Selah grumbled, kicking a pebble across the sidewalk. It skittered ahead of her and Kara's feet before slowing to a halt.

"I know," the hero replied. "Alex just wants to make sure that you get there safely, and that the Agenda doesn't jump you in some dark alleyway." Selah kicked the pebble again, but this time it rolled off the sidewalk and into the street. "Do you want to stop at Noonan's on the way?"

"No. My aunt said that my mother has been coming around there. I don't want to see her."

"Okay." They were quiet for awhile, walking together in silence.

"Do you ever feel guilty for being the one who survived?" Selah asked abruptly, looking over at Kara.

"Sometimes," she replied honestly. "I didn't understand why it had to be me. I lost everything that I knew; everything familiar to me was gone forever. But I learned how to become open again, and how to let myself love new things and new people, and now I don't feel so alone anymore. And I knew that my family would have wanted me to make new connections, and to find a new family. They wouldn't have wanted me to be lonely and guilt-ridden forever."

"J'onn said the same thing."

"He is a wise man." Selah chuckled. "I know Alex probably told you this a million times already, but this isn't your fault."

"It doesn't really feel that way," the girl admitted.

"I know." Kara threw an arm around the girl as they waited for a red light to change. "It will get easier." The light changed and they began to walk again, taking the longer way to avoid Noonan's. "Are you excited to start classes next week?"

"Yeah," Selah said. "It'll be tough because it's already a month into the semester, so I'll have a lot of work to catch up on, but it will be good to finally have a schedule and some structure again."

"Brainy told me that you're in an English and Classical Studies/Physics double major."

"And I might minor in Math, but I want to see how this year goes." Kara shook her head, incredulous.

"Well, Lena said if you ever want practical experience, that L-Corp takes on student interns over the summers."

"I'll have to keep that in mind." As they turned onto a side street, Selah felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she sensed-

"You okay?" Kara asked.

"Yeah," Selah replied. "Just thought I heard something." She glanced over her shoulder, but didn't see anyone else around. The psychic energy around them seemed normal, she heard Kara's thoughts, and the odd snippets from people in buildings nearby. Whatever she thought she had felt was gone.

They soon arrived at Nia and Selah's apartment, both pretending not to see the rubble across the street where an apartment used to be. Kara insisted on walking the girl up to her front door, and delivering her directly into Nia's hands. She tried to mask her thoughts, and insisted that it was just because she was being chivalrous, and because she liked spending time with her paternal first cousin once removed, but Selah knew better. Nia, Kara and Alex all had the same underlying fear that Selah was going to turn herself over to the Agenda, and thus were refusing to let the girl out of their sight.

"Good day at work?" Selah asked Nia, once she had said goodbye to Kara and shut the apartment door.

"Yeah," Nia replied. "I finished my article two days before the deadline."

"You overachiever."

"How was your day?"

"Fine, I guess. Are all the sticky buns gone?" Nia nodded. "Heck. I think I'm going to go to bed early, it's been a long day."

"Okay," the reporter replied, and Selah pretended not to hear the worry rise up in the other woman's thoughts.

She went into her room, closed the door, and flopped down onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. _There is no guilt in surviving, _she reminded herself, wishing she could believe it.

.

Shutting her notebook, Selah placed it into the hand-me-down backpack that Nia had found for her, and zipped it shut. She now had four essays to write, as well as a month of math homework, two papers, six assignments, and three upcoming tests to study for. The tests she was less worried about, she had learned in elementary school that it was impossible to try not to cheat on tests when you have telepathy and can't avoid hearing the thoughts of your classmates. But she had already pulled two all-nighters this week to finish the work that she was behind on, and more just kept getting piled on top. _I guess that's the consequence of trying to complete a double major in only two years_, she mused to herself, throwing the backpack over her shoulders.

"Did you hear there was another bombing this morning?" She spun to see two boys a few rows behind her, talking as they left the lecture hall. "Downtown. A fifteen story building went down."

"Damn," the other boy replied. "My aunt's building was bombed last week, and they lost everything. I wish the police would say why all this is happening. I heard they're going to start a mandatory curfew for the city soon."

Selah stood rooted to the spot as the boys left, trying to regulate her breathing. It had been nearly two weeks since the first bombing, and there were still countless threats that the DEO was investigating, but no arrests being made. The few people they had in custody were still refusing to speak and in the meantime, five buildings had been destroyed. No one had died yet, but seventeen people had been severely injured.

Alex was still insisting that one of the Superfriends always had to be made aware of where she was going, and if she was even just a few minutes late to arrive somewhere, she would get bombarded with texts asking where she was. It was overwhelming to say the least.

Once she left the lecture hall, she found the director of the DEO herself standing outside the building, trying to look casual as she leaned against a wall, holding two coffees.

"Hey Alex," Selah said.

"Hi," she replied, walking over to join the girl as she began walking home. "I finished early at the DEO, so I thought I'd come see how your class went."

"Fine. We talked about Markov chains and Martingales. Probability and statistics stuff."

"How exciting." She handed the girl one of the coffee cups, which Selah took. "Your aunt says hello, by the way."

"Thanks."

"She said you haven't been around recently. Did you two have a fight?"

"No," the girl replied. "She said that there were a couple of people hanging around her apartment, and that she couldn't read their minds. I'm afraid that her connection to me could end up with her getting hurt."

"We can increase security around her apartment. We already have few agents nearby, but we can add some more." Selah nodded.

"I heard that there was another bombing."

"Yes." Alex shoved her hands into her pockets, looking down at her feet. "Three casualties, and six more people are in critical but stable condition. But the FBI have said that they're going to be getting involved, and the government is in the process of voting on if they should declare a state of emergency."

"How long is this going to go on for?" Selah stopped walking, and turned to face the agent.

"We are following every lead we can-"

"It's been weeks, Alex," the girl interrupted." People are dying now."

"We have someone else in custody now who might be able to give us more answers," Alex began, but Selah rolled her eyes.

"None of you have any idea what you're dealing with or who you're up against!" she said, frustration evident in her voice.

"What am I supposed to do, Selah?" Alex demanded. "Turn you over to them? Let them torture you again until they eventually kill you?"

"J'onn and Kara keep telling me how I shouldn't have survivors guilt, and that it isn't my fault, but it's bull. This isn't me living through some natural disaster or a genocide. Every day that I stay here, I am choosing to put everyone in danger. I am saying that me surviving is more important than the lives of everyone else in this city. And what?" She laughed angrily, turning away from Alex. "I'm supposed to feel fine about that? I'm supposed to be proud of everything I've overcome?"

"Selah," Alex began, but the girl cut her off again.

"No. Please don't try to make me feel better right now. Tell Kara to watch me walk home from the rooftops or whatever, but I need some space right now."

Alex watched as the girl walked away, before tapping her earpiece.

"Brainy?" She asked.

"Present," the Coluan replied. "Did you tell Selah about our new guest?"

"I didn't get a chance to." She swallowed hard before continuing. "Start questioning her. We'll tell Selah once she's calmer."

.

.

.


	12. Chapter 12

Selah walked quickly, trying to let some of her anger and frustration out as she went by stomping slightly harder than was necessary. Her backpack bounced on her back, and her hand clenched tighter around the coffee cup that she was still holding. Part of her wanted to throw out the coffee just for the dramatic effect, but that felt wasteful. Scowling, she drank it in one large gulp and tossed the cup into a garbage can. Caffeine didn't have much of an effect on her, but she needed all that she could get if she was supposed to finish all her assignments before the due dates. Coming up to a red light, she bounced on her heels restlessly.

She felt bad for yelling at Alex, she knew that the agent was only doing her job and trying to protect her, but the situation was so beyond frustrating. For one moment she had allowed herself to believe that she could be free from the Agenda and that she could move past all of the torture, but just as soon as she allowed the thought to enter her head, they started systematically destroying the city. _I'm never going to get away,_ she thought to herself as she started walking again. As she passed Noonan's, she felt the same strange feeling she had felt on the night that she and Kara walked home from the DEO together, the day after the first bombing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she stooped down, intentionally untying her shoe and beginning to re-tie it as an excuse to pause, trying to pinpoint what exactly felt so strange. She tilted her head slightly, furrowing her brow, and suddenly it hit her.

There was a space in the psychic noise around her, the usual buzz of the thoughts of other people on the sidewalk and inside the nearby buildings. Directly to her left, in an alleyway beside Noonan's there was an area where the noise just stopped, as if it was hitting an invisible wall and bouncing off. She remembered what her aunt said about men by her apartment whose thoughts she couldn't hear, and a chill ran down her spine. Turning her head up to the sky, she reached out to see if Kara actually was watching her, but she didn't hear anything. She finished tying her shoe and straightened up, tentatively peering into the alleyway. Alley was a generous way to describe it, it was only perhaps four feet wide, and about half a block long, engulfed in shadow by the skyscraper next to it. Using her X-ray vision, she could make out three figures at the very end of the alley, two men and a woman. She began walking towards them, her pace quickening as she entered the shadows.

It smelled of moldy newspaper and garbage, and the ground seemed to be perpetually damp. Her senses were prickling as she walked closer and closer to the gap in the noise, and she noticed that it was getting harder to hear the thoughts of the people around her as she got closer to the end of the alleyway.

_There is no shame in survival, _said a little voice in the back of her mind as she kept walking closer, in a last ditch attempt to convince herself to turn back. She flicked the thought away like an irritating fly.

"There's also no shame in doing what's right," she muttered to herself. Finally, she was able to see the three people in front of her without using X-ray vision. One of the two men was huge, well over six feet, with broad shoulders and biceps the size of Selah's head. The other man was smaller, wearing glasses. She didn't recognize either of them.

"Hello patient 037," the woman spoke in a lilting Italian accent, and Selah looked at her to see the face of Director Beta. "What a pleasant surprise." Instinctively, the girl took a step back, stepping into a puddle. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to continue, walking forwards again until she was only a few feet away from the other three. She could no longer hear any thoughts, and the quietness engulfed her. Clenching a fist, she felt that her strength was gone as well. She could make out the shape of a van behind them, at the end of the alley, with the side door open.

"You wanted me," Selah said, trying her best to keep her voice steady. "Here I am."

"Here you are indeed." Director Beta smiled, her mouth twisting cruelly. "You haven't had the pleasure of meeting my friends yet." She gestured to the two men. The one in glasses nodded, and the tall one grunted. "I recently had to replace my entire staff team. These two boys are our newest recruits. In fact, Mr. O'Leary here," she pointed to the one in glasses, "designed this pocket-sized power dampener for me." She pulled a small device out of her coat pocket and held it in the air. "Fun, no?"

"Just hilarious." Selah glared at the woman, and she put the power dampener back into her pocket.

"So serious," she tutted. She began walking forward, and slowly circled around the girl. "I see that your friends removed the port," she said, running a hand across the back of Selah's head, her long nails tracing where the metal plate used to be. "What a shame."

"Are you going to kidnap me or not?" she demanded, shoving her hands into her pockets to hide how badly they were shaking. "Because I have a class at seven, and I should let my prof know if I won't be there." Director Beta circled back around to face Selah, still smiling.

"We never could break your spirit, could we?" she asked. "Well, second time's a charm, I suppose." She nodded to the burly man, who came forward and grabbed Selah's arms, beginning to forcibly walk her towards the van. Suddenly, there was a sizzling noise, and he jerked back in pain. Director Beta whirled, and Selah followed the woman's gaze to see Kara landing a few feet away, hands on her hips.

"No," Selah yelled. "Get out of here, they-" The burly man slapped her across the mouth with his non-burned hand, and she fell to the damp ground of the alley.

"Look who's come to play," Director Beta marveled. She began walking towards Kara, and Selah could see the hero stiffen as she started to feel her powers drain.

"Kidnapping is a serious crime," Kara said.

"It's not a kidnapping. We're just rightfully reclaiming what's ours. We did buy her, after all." Selah got back up to her feet, and Kara briefly made eye contact with her before looking back at the director.

"Hopefully they take returns," she said. In a flash, she darted over to Selah and grabbed the girl, before going back to her initial position, this time putting herself between Selah and the other three.

"This one is more resistant to the power dampeners, O'Leary," Director Beta said, still smiling. "Fascinating."

"Selah, run." Kara said without turning around, her voice serious.

"No," she replied. "This is the only way that we can end all of this."

"That isn't the answer. Now I am telling you to run."

"No," Selah repeated. Director Beta pulled the power dampener out of her pocket again and began playing with the dials on the side.

"Let's see if your additional features work yet, Mr. O'Leary," she said, pointing it directly at Kara.

Right before the jet of blue light hit the hero, she whirled around to face Selah. Taking a deep breath, Kara used the last of her powers to super-clap, creating a powerful wave that hit Selah head on, sending her flying backwards into the street. She laid on the sidewalk winded, and struggled to her feet to see the burly man dragging an unconscious Kara into the van.

"No!" Selah screamed, ignoring the concerned looks from people passing by. She ran back into the alley but her powers were still drained, and by the time she reached the end, the van was racing away, the tires squealing. Taking a few deep breaths, she pulled out her phone.

"What's up?" Alex demanded immediately.

"It's Kara," the girl panted out. "They took Kara."

.

"What do you mean they had a portable power-dampener?" Alex asked, leaning on the table.

"It was the size of a flash drive, and when I got near it my powers went away," Selah replied. She was seated in the conference room again, this time with Alex interrogating her on what exactly had happened in the alley. "And it could shoot out a concentrated ray. That's how they knocked out Kara."

"And you knew they were there because you couldn't pick up any psychic signals around where this power dampener was." Alex stated. Selah nodded. "So you heard something suspicious, and instead of calling me or Kara or any other DEO agent, you decided to investigate it by yourself." She began pacing back and forth, her arms crossed. "And when you saw one of the directors from the Agenda with two goons, you still continued to go towards them and not call for help?" Selah didn't reply. "How could you be so irresponsible?"

"I didn't think Kara was going to show up," she said. "I was just going to let them take me, so that all of this could be over."

"I have told you a thousand times, that is not how we are going to go about this." Alex stopped pacing and turned to Selah. "I should have known that you'd be too stubborn to listen to me."

"I just wanted to end the bomb threats."

"You are not a superhero. That's not your job. You might have powers, but you have zero training on how to use them or control them. You should have left us to deal with this instead of taking it on yourself."

"So I'm just supposed to keep standing by while innocent people die, when I can stop it?"

"You can't stop it," Alex barked. "You don't have that authority. You are a nineteen year old kid. I am the director of a federal agency that is designed to deal with threats of this nature. I am the one with the authority, and I directly told you not to do exactly what you did, and now?" She shook her head angrily. "My sister is gone."

"I'm sorry," Selah whispered.

"I know." Alex ran a hand over her face and sighed. "I know you are. But from now on, you need to do exactly as I say. No more trying to save the city. No more of this self-sacrifice." Selah nodded, and Alex looked at her for a long moment before sighing again and leaving the room. "Go home," she said as she left. "Agent Sanchez will escort you there. I expect you to stay there all night. If you see or hear anything suspicious, get to a safe place and call me."

"Okay." The agent shut the door, and Selah sat alone at the table, swallowing back tears. Agent Sanchez entered the room a moment later, and she silently stood up and joined him. He didn't attempt to start any conversation for the entire walk home, and simply nodded once she reached her apartment, standing outside until she unlocked the door. Nia was sitting on the couch, and she stood up as Selah entered the apartment.

The two stood still, looking at each other, uncertain of what to say. After a few long moments, Nia held her arms out, and Selah stumbled into a hug.

"I'm so stupid," she sobbed. "All of this is my fault."

"It's okay," Nia murmured. They stayed like that for a long time, until eventually Selah's tears subsided.

"I'm sorry," she said, pulling away. "I'm so sorry." She slumped down onto the couch and Nia sat beside her.

"Selah, Kara's tough. She'll be alright, I know it."

"You don't know what it was like there. It was so horrible all the time. They put random injections into me that would make me sick for days, they tested viruses and vaccinations on me. They would cut me open whenever they felt like it just to poke around at my organs. They'd put my arms or legs in freezing water for days and days just to see what happened, or they'd pour boiling water over me. They-" her voice broke, and her eyes filled up with tears again. "And now Kara's there and it's my fault."

"We'll get her back." Selah looked at Nia, her eyes sad. "We will."

.

The next morning, Selah woke up to the smell of cooking. She wandered out of her room to find Nia wearing a bright pink apron and making a ridiculous amount of pancakes.

"Morning," she said warmly. "I made breakfast."

"How do you not hate me?" Selah asked, rubbing her eyes blearily. "Kara's your friend."

"You're my friend too. And I am going to do everything I can to help get her back, and that starts with a healthy breakfast. There's fresh fruit and orange juice in the fridge." She pushed a plate towards Selah. "Eat."

"Are you going to the DEO?" She went to the fridge and got the aforementioned fruit, putting blueberries on top of the pancakes.

"Yes," Nia replied. "Alex texted me last night."

"I want to come too."

"Don't you have class?"

"This is more important." Nia looked uncertain, so Selah continued. "Look, I know Alex is pissed at me, and rightfully so. But no one knows the Agenda like I do. I can help."

"Okay."

In the end, they only managed to eat about half of the pancakes, so Nia put them into a tupperware and they brought them along to the DEO, figuring that Alex probably hadn't stopped to eat anything. Once they arrived, the entire agency was abuzz with activity. Alex, J'onn, Kal-El, Brainy and Lena were in a conference room, but they all stopped and looked up as Nia and Selah entered. Kal waved awkwardly to Selah, and she waved back, feeling equally uncomfortable.

"We brought pancakes," Nia said half-heartedly.

"You should be at school," Alex said to Selah curtly.

"I know I messed up," the girl replied. "But I can help. Please." Alex took a long, slow breath.

"Fine. You can describe the device that you saw to Brainy and Lena, so that they can figure out how it's made and how to shut down its signal." Selah nodded, turning to the Coluan and the CEO.

"Selah Lerrol, welcome," Brainy said as she walked over. Lowering his voice, he added. "I was hoping you'd show up."

"Hi, Brainy," Selah replied. Lena held out her hand, which the girl shook. "Nice to meet you."

"You as well. I've heard a lot about you from Kara." Selah twitched as a wave of emotion washed off the woman, and she nodded.

"I can send you telepathic images of the device, Brainy. Would that help narrow down what materials are powering it?"

"Most definitely," he answered. Selah shut her eyes and transferred her memories of the device to him, and he began creating a 3D template on his tablet.

"It looks like it's made of Nth metal," Lena said, looking over Brainy's shoulder at the screen.

"That would be my guess," Selah chewed her lip, thinking. "Most of the stuff they made at the facility was Nth."

"It seems to be able to transmit some sort of electromagnetic radiation that disrupts the storage of solar energy in all aliens who get powers from the yellow sun." Brainy began rapidly typing on the tablet as he continued. "Similar to how a red sun blocks the ability for that energy to be metabolized."

"So if we can find exactly what frequency it travels on, we could possibly disable it?" the girl asked.

"In theory," Lena replied, still reading what Brainy was typing. "But it's next to impossible to know what frequency that is without further interaction with the device."

"Maybe it left a radiation signature?"

"Unlikely," the Coluan interjected. "Unless it was a highly unstable substance it wouldn't have left an isotopic fingerprint strong enough for our signals to pick up."

"Is it possible for me to take some blood from you?" Lena asked the girl carefully, looking up. "I can test the types of radiation that you would be most sensitive to, and it would help us determine what they might be using." Selah instinctively stiffened up, pulling her arms closer to her body, but she swallowed down her anxiety.

"If it helps us find Kara," she answered. Lena ran the plan by Alex, who agreed that it was a good idea, and sent them to the medical bay. As they entered the room and Selah sat on the bed, she once again felt panic rise up in her seeing the CEO grabbing a pair of medical gloves and digging in a drawer to find a tourniquet.

"Are you alright?" Lena asked, noticing the girl's leg bouncing up and down. She nodded stiffly, looking at the door.

"Not huge on needles, I guess."

"Would you prefer if Alex did it? I know you probably trust her more than me."

"No, I'm just being silly." Selah rubbed a hand over her eyes and Lena finally found a blood kit with the kryptonite needles in the drawer. She brought it over to the bed, setting it down on the island and pulling on the gloves.

"Did you know that octopi have three hearts?" she said suddenly, opening up the kit. It took a moment for Selah to process what the woman had said.

"What?" she asked finally. Lena sat on the stool and gently moved the girl's arm closer to her.

"And they have blue blood due to a high copper content." She pulled the strip of rubber tight around the girl's forearm and began feeling around for a vein

"Neat. Why are you telling me this?" Lena smiled wryly.

"To distract you from the fact that I'm putting a needle into your arm." she slid the needle into Selah's arm smoothly, and the girl winced. "When I was a child, I hated having my hair brushed. My brother used to tell me facts about animals to distract me. I was hoping it would work in this situation as well."

"Got anymore?" Selah asked, squeezing her eyes shut.

"They can regrow their arms." She filled a few vials up, and pulled the needle out again, pressing a cotton ball to the girl's elbow before she realized it had already healed up. "In fact, it's been documented that they will often pull off their own arms in stressful situations."

"That's pretty dark." Lena removed the tourniquet and put the vials of blood onto the counter.

"Such is nature, I suppose." Closing up the kit again, she put the vials on a stand and removed her gloves.

"Can I do anything else to help?" Selah asked, standing up.

"Do you have any experience with testing blood?"

"No, I mostly got tested on, I wasn't doing much testing myself." Lena bit back a smile.

"I'll show you the ropes, I could use an extra set of hands."

.

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	13. Chapter 13

By the fifth day of the Superfriends investigation, Lena and Brainy had almost had a breakthrough with the power dampeners and Selah's blood but it ended up being a false negative. Alex had found tire tracks in the alleyway that matched 80% of all the rental vans in the city and absolutely no DNA anywhere. Kal-El was doing nightly sweeps of the city using his super senses but wasn't noticing anything. Nia's dreams didn't have any consistent signs, and J'onn and Selah couldn't sense Kara's psychic energy at all. To say that they were all disappointed and frustrated was a major understatement.

"How can we not find them?" Nia asked that morning, as they all sat around the table trying to discuss how to move forward. "How do they just seem to disappear and reappear out of thin air whenever they want to be seen?"

"They're like chameleons," Kal said. "Hiding in plain sight. Blending in."

"We're positive that they're human?" Alex asked. "They're not shape-shifting?"

"I deduced with a ninety four percent certainty that they are indeed human based off the images that Selah sent us," Brainy said.

"I spoke again with my mother about this, and she insists that she doesn't know anything about them," Lena added. "I could bring a truth seeker, I suppose but," she shrugged. "I think I believe her."

"They stay in abandoned buildings, mostly underground," Selah said. "But they also move around once every few months. The building that you found me in was only one of countless places where they had me."

"We've done sweeps of all the abandoned factories and warehouses in the city," Alex said. "Did they ever take you outside of National City?"

"I don't know. I never knew where I was being taken. Some of the places were near a forest I think, or a river." The girl winced suddenly, inhaling sharply and bringing a hand to her temple.

"Are you okay?" Lena asked.

"Yeah," she replied absently.

"You look really pale," Alex interjected. "Have you been having seizures again?"

"I'm fine," Selah insisted. "Can we please focus on finding Kara?"

The conversation resumed, but Alex kept an eye on the girl, mentally keeping a count of all the times she rubbed her forehead.

"I had a dream flash about some kind of salamanders," Nia said glumly. "I don't know what it means, but maybe it has something to do with a forest? I looked it up in my mother's dream symbols books but all they said was that lizards are a symbol of regrowth and perseverance."

"My databases also indicate that it could be a phallic symbol, according to Freud," Brainy added.

"Not helpful," Alex said, pointing at him. "I'm going to go over some data. I'll be in my lab if anyone needs me. Brainy, I need you to keep trying to track Kara's comms, try and find out where exactly they last went off-line."

"Affirmative," he said. She left and the group got back to work. No one seemed to notice Selah quietly excusing herself a few moments later, following Alex to the lab.

"I want to see her," she said once she arrived, slightly more restless than usual.

"What?" The agent asked.

"My mother. I know she's here." Alex sighed and shut her laptop as the girl walked over and sat next to the desk that Alex was working at.

"I'm sorry. I was going to tell you, but then Kara was taken, and-" Selah shook her head, cutting the woman off.

"It doesn't matter. I just need to talk to her about the Agenda. I need to know if she knows anything about Kara."

"We already tried talking to her," Alex told the girl. "She's not saying much."

"I know. But I have to try."

"Okay. I'm coming with you, though." Selah stiffened a little bit. "Love, the last time you saw your mother she beat you up. I'm not letting you get hurt by her again."

"Okay," she said quietly. The two stood up and made their way to the cell block where Lyla was being held, Selah anxiously cracking her knuckles as they walked.

"I'm going to be beside you the whole time," Alex said as they opened the door. The girl nodded, and walked into the hallway outside of her mother's cell. Lyla was standing directly in front of the glass, anticipating their arrival, and she smirked as her daughter entered.

"I was wondering when you'd come to visit," she said. Selah stood opposite her mother, glaring back at the woman. "It's typically seen as rude to ignore your family."

"Yeah well, it's also typically seen as rude to sell your daughter to buy more alcohol," the girl replied, crossing her arms. "I know that you're still involved with the Agenda. Where are they?"

"Straight to the point, hmm?" Lyla raised an eyebrow. "Why, do you miss them?"

"You must know that what they are doing is wrong."

"Don't preach your morals to me," the woman snapped.

"So you think that their actions are just? That conducting experiments on children is a virtuous cause?"

"I think they acted intelligently. They found a branch of science that was unexplored, and they found the resources to expand on it. That is, after all, how new discoveries get made."

"I know you don't truly believe that."

"You know nothing." Lyla scoffed. "You have these simplistic ideas of what is right and what is wrong, but you have no idea how the world actually works. In this life, there is no one definition of good and evil, there is simply chaos." She began examining her cuticles idly as she continued. "And who gets to define what is right? Governments? Corporations? The people in power? It was a government on Andromeda that decided that all their citizens with minds such as mine deserved to be killed. Is that right? Your Martian friend will tell you that the Whites decided that it was _noble _and _good_ to kill all the Greens. Were they correct?" She laughed airily. "One day, my dear, perhaps you will learn that in order to get by in this world, you cannot get yourself tangled up in the mess of virtue politics." Looking directly at Selah, she raised a finger to emphasize her point. "There is no right and wrong, there is only survival."

"_Alodiah_, please" the girl said intently, using the Andromedan word for mother. "I know that you made choices that you regret in the name of survival. I know that your guilt eats you up inside. I know that you are held captive by it. You have a second chance here. We can help you to make a different choice this time, one that you can feel proud of." Lyla looked away and for a moment, Selah thought that her mother was going to actually listen, but the woman's face grew hard.

"_You are no daughter of mine,_" she said, switching over to Andromedan._ "You are nothing more than a coward._" She slowly lifted her head and looked at the girl with an intensity that made her shiver. "_I sold you to those doctors with the understanding that they were going to kill you_." Leaning forwards slightly, she whispered, "_I wish that they had_."

Selah stared evenly at her mother, waiting for the woman's decision to become final. After a few long moments, she turned to Alex.

"I'm done here," she said, striding out of the room and biting back angry tears that pricked at the back of her eyes.

"What did she say?" Alex demanded, following the girl as she strode back to the atrium.

"Nothing useful." She turned abruptly, facing the agent. "Is it alright if I take a break for a few minutes? I just feel a little overwhelmed." Alex nodded.

"Call me if anything's wrong."

"I will." The agent watched as Selah walked onto the balcony and sat on the railing, her back to the DEO. The girl sat there for a few minutes, her eyes shut, feeling the wind gently moving her hair as she listened to the noise around her. She heard one person's thoughts getting louder and louder as they approached, until they were standing in the doorway.

"Hey," she said finally, without opening her eyes. Kal smiled ruefully as he walked over to his daughter, sitting next to her on the railing.

"I guess it's pretty hard to sneak up on a telepath," he said. Selah glanced over at him, smiling slightly.

"Sorry for getting kinda overwhelmed the last time we talked," she said after a moment.

"I get it."

"The whole 'surprise, it's a father' thing was kind of a lot."

"Yeah, well I wasn't exactly expecting to discover my secret daughter." He rubbed his chin, snorting. "Still not used to saying that." Selah looked at him, examining his face as he looked out at the city. "If you ever want to come to Metropolis to meet Lois and my boys, you're more than welcome."

"Okay." They stood in silence for awhile, side by side. "I'm sorry about Kara," she said eventually. He nodded, his eyes kind.

"We'll get her back." They stood there for awhile longer, watching the city, both listening for any signs of Kara. "I'm going to go do another lap of the city," he said finally, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay." Selah watched as he took off and began flying over the city, and she winced again as the noise around her rose in volume once more.

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Alex was studying Lena's research that she did on Selah's blood, frowning at the numbers that she was reading when a woman burst into the room followed by two agents, both of whom had their weapons raised.

"We don't know who she is, Ma'am," one of them said. "She just ran into here and wouldn't stop."

"Are you Director Danvers?" the woman asked, seemingly unbothered by the guns pointed at her.

"Who's asking?" Alex replied.

"My name is Lea Lerrol. I'm Selah's aunt."

"You're both dismissed," the director said to the agents, both of whom lowered their guns and left the room.

"Is she still here?" Lea asked, wringing her hands. "I can't find her psychically."

"Yeah, she was on the balcony with Clark a minute ago," Alex told her. "Why do you ask?"

"I think she might be in danger. About an hour ago, the Agenda began broadcasting a telepathic message across the city, saying that they would send Supergirl back if Selah went to them, as a trade. I immediately texted her and told her not to do anything, and she told me that she wouldn't. Ten minutes ago, she stopped answering my texts right as soon as the Agenda's message began to be sent again. I tried finding her telepathically, but I couldn't, the last place that I could sense her was here." Upon hearing this, Alex stood up and the two women began walking to the atrium.

"Why didn't J'onn hear the message?" she asked.

"Martians cannot pick up on Andromedan psychic waves." They entered the atrium and saw that the balcony was empty. Lea began quietly crying. Going over to the main desk, Alex started pulling up the surveillance footage from that area. "There," Lea said, pointing to the screen as Selah appeared on the balcony. She watched Clark fly off, and then her hand went back up to her temple, as Alex assumed she began hearing the second message from the Agenda. She stayed on the railing for a few moments before beginning to pace back and forth anxiously. Pulling out her phone, she removed the battery and set it beside the door, and with a quick glance over her shoulder, she jumped off the balcony and disappeared.

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	14. Chapter 14

Selah awoke abruptly, trying to stifle the groan that arose in her throat. A bright light was shining on her from above the bed, and once her eyes managed to focus, she realized it was a surgical lamp. Then it all came flooding back.

This was the fourth surgery that they had done on her since she had come back to the Agenda, each one only a few days apart. They would operate, wait for her powers to return- leaving her to sleep on the surgical table, and then repeat it the next day. The first two times, they had cut open her abdomen and then her chest, the third time was her spine, and now as she looked down at her body, she saw a gaping incision on the crook of her left elbow that was barely beginning to scab over. Her arms were secured down to the table at her wrists, and she had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth.

The doctor seemed to notice that she was awake, and she crossed over to the surgical bed, beginning to wipe the mostly dried blood off of Selah's arm with an alcohol swab. Hissing in pain, she felt the doctor pause, glancing over towards her before resuming the task. Once it was done, the doctor removed the oxygen mask and began setting up the sun lamp.

There had been no other doctors or nurses in the room, at least while she was conscious, which Selah thought was odd. When she was with the Agenda before, they always had full surgical teams, with at least two or three nurses per doctor, but this time it had only ever been this particular doctor. She had done all four operations, working quickly with an intense precision that was enough to make up for the lack of a support team. She was in her early forties, Selah would guess, with graying brown curls and blue eyes that kept glancing over at Selah curiously. Her powers weren't back yet, but the girl could tell that the woman was focused, the tension in her hands evident.

"Your powers should be back within the next few hours," she said mechanically, as she removed her gloves. "I will be in the next room tracking your vitals." Without waiting for a reply, the doctor exited the room, leaving Selah alone.

The restraints on her wrists had prevented her from moving around too much over the past four days, and her back was aching. While all of her previous injuries were long healed, the cut on her arm was still throbbing dully, and she glanced at it again. It was about four or five inches long, and probably two inches deep, severing muscle and tendons. Those would all rejoin once her powers returned, but it was still unnerving to be able to see inside such a deep gash. Tearing her eyes away from the cut, she took a few deep breaths, trying to swallow back the nausea that was rising up in her throat. Her whole body felt sore and tired, a familiar pain that she got each time she woke up from the anesthesia. She was grateful that they gave her anesthesia for these surgeries, as they hadn't always deemed it necessary in the past, and would sometimes operate on her while she was awake and had complete feeling, heavily restraining her to keep her from moving.

As she stared up at the lights on the ceiling, she wished that this was all somehow a dream, that none of it was real, and she would wake up in the DEO again, or in her apartment, or on Kara's couch.

'_You rarely feel pain in dreams_," a logical part of her mind whispered, and she shut her eyes. This was real. This was actually happening. She was back at the Agenda, as a lab rat for them to run tests on for as long as they still had tests to do. Once they ran out of them... Selah shook her head, trying not to think about what was going to happen. She could still see the light through her eyelids, coloring all of her vision orange, and she allowed herself to get lost in thought, drowning in the color.

She was surprised by how numb she felt to all of it. From the moment that she had been taken by the DEO, the biggest fear that was always at the forefront of her mind was that she was going to end up back with the Agenda. She had countless nightmares about this, where she would wake up trembling in a cold sweat, often staying awake for hours afterwards. The sheer _terror_ at the prospect of being back in an underground lab somewhere, getting tested on was enough to make her unable to fall back asleep. But now that she was here, she didn't feel afraid, she didn't feel angry, or sad, or upset. She didn't feel anything at all, just numb. Her mind felt sluggish and somehow separate from her body, as if it hadn't quite connected what had happened and what was going on.

During her last stay with the Agenda, they discovered that she could survive underwater without oxygen, a gift from her Andromedan DNA. They began running an experiment where they kept her submerged in a tank of water for weeks, sometimes in the dark, sometimes not. She remembered just floating in the water, her arms and legs hanging loosely around her, and feeling so distant from everything around her. It felt like the rest of the world was light years away, and all that existed was her mind, trapped inside of this tank. For awhile when she was in the dark, she genuinely wondered if she had died and this was what the afterlife was, an eternity or black empty nothingness, just floating aimlessly forever. Thankfully the experiment only lasted for a few months, or Selah was certain that she would have lost all grip on reality, but now, on this table in the lab, she had the same feeling. That perhaps somewhere normal life was going on, and the world was still spinning, but she was someplace else, very far away from that normalcy, completely unable to feel or think anything. Each second felt like it lasted for hours, and all she felt was this deep, empty, numbness. It was worse than pain, or fear.

She felt her arm beginning to close up again, a warm, buzzing sensation, as her powers slowly returned. The lab must have been rigged with telepathy blockers since the last surgery, because she couldn't hear the doctor's thoughts from the next room. In fact, she couldn't hear any thoughts at all. After all of her previous surgeries once her powers returned, she had been able to hear the usual hum of the thoughts around her, but now it was all gone. She had never before understood how silence could be deafening, but lying face up on that table in a surgical suite, the sheer lack of sound was beyond deafening, it was suffocating. Closing her eyes tighter, she clenched up all the muscles in her body until she heard the blood rushing in her ears, so at least there was some noise to be heard instead of the unbearable _nothing_.

"You are healed?" Selah's eyes popped open, and she saw that the woman had returned and was standing in the doorway, now accompanied by a security guard, the same one from the alley the day that Kara was taken. She nodded, and the doctor walked over to the table, unlocking the restraints. The girl supposed that this meant they were done with the surgeries, as she hadn't been allowed off of the table before. She refused to move from the table until the doctor had taken a few steps back again, and then she sat up slowly, rubbing her wrists. Her elbow was closed up completely now, the skin showing no sign of any trauma at all. Selah could feel the doctor eyeing it, and she rotated her arm so that the woman could no longer see it. Nodding to the security guard, the woman walked to the sun lamp and shut it off. The man walked over to Selah, pulling one of the power draining devices out of his pocket.

"You do anything, I shoot you, understand?" he asked. Selah nodded again, and he gestured for her to stand up. They left the lab and the doctor, and began walking through a maze of corridors, one of the guard's hands firmly wrapped around her forearm, while the other kept the device pointed squarely at her chest. The hallways were barren, with metal walls, floors and ceilings. The closest thing to any kind of decoration was the light fixtures that hung from the walls. Turning a corner, the hallway ended abruptly in an ornate wooden door, on which the guard knocked twice. It swung open to reveal Director Beta.

"Wonderful," she purred, pulling the door open wider to allow the guard to enter, still pulling Selah with him. The room appeared to be an office, and it was much more well-decorated than the rest of the building, with dark red wallpaper, wood paneling, and carpeted floors. A gold chandelier hung from the ceiling, a few bookcases lined the walls, and wide desk sat in the corner with a wingback armchair placed behind it. "I trust you've recovered from the procedure?" Selah ignored the question, and continued glaring evenly at Beta, who nodded to the guard, signalling for him to exit. As he left, she crossed over to the desk, leaning against it delicately. "The doctors and I have been talking, and we have some big plans for you."

"Why can't I hear anyone's thoughts?" the girl muttered.

"Ah," she pointed to her earpiece, which had a small blue light on it. "Telepathic shields that we created in your leave. I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that we won't be needing the tiara anymore."

"Fantastic."

"We also safeguarded the building with anti-Andromedan defenses. If you go past certain boundaries, they will sense your psychic powers and give you an electric shock strong enough to paralyze you." She tilted her head, smiling sweetly. "And we don't want that, now do we?"

"What are you going to do to me?" Selah asked. Beta smiled.

"We wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. You'll find out in due time." She straightened up, walking around the desk to open a drawer. "Now, one last thing before we bid our adieus, just a bit of housekeeping." She picked up a pair of white handcuffs, which glowed with the same blue light as her earpiece. "These will inhibit your psychic powers while you're in the cell. Just so we know you're not trying to play any tricks on us." She held them out expectantly, but Selah didn't move. "Come now, don't make me bring the guard in to persuade you."

"What are you going to do?" she asked again, hoping the woman would answer. Beta simply raised one eyebrow expectantly. They stared at each other for a few long moments, the woman still smiling cooly, daring Selah to defy her. Finally, the girl walked stiffly over to the desk and held her arms out, allowing the woman to put the handcuffs on her wrists. Her hands brushed against Selah's, and the girl held back the instinct to recoil.

"Good girl," The director said once the cuffs were secured, patting Selah's cheek. "Now run along, the guard should be waiting outside." Going back behind her desk, and sitting down onto the armchair, her posture pristine, the woman watched as Selah went to the door, struggling to turn the knob with her cuffed hands. Finally, she got the door open, meeting the guard in the hallway. The man grabbed her forearm once more, and began walking her back through the building.

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	15. Chapter 15

Kara didn't know how long she had been in the cell. There were no windows, or anything to indicate the time of day. Security guards passed by every few hours, she would estimate, and once, she had been given a bowl of cold broth and some stale saltine crackers, all of which she had eaten hungrily.

They had only taken her back into the lab one time so far, to take cell samples. Her powers were still gone from the dampening gun that knocked her unconscious, and without any sunlight to bring them back, they were able to draw blood, swab her cheeks, and take skin and hair samples. Then they put her under a yellow sun lamp for a few hours, until her powers returned, before returning her to the cell, and that was all. If Selah's experience was any indication, however, she knew that they'd be back.

The cell was maybe six feet by twelve feet- Kara had walked out the distance as soon as she arrived- made entirely of Nth metal. Three of the walls were solid metal, but the front one was made of Nth metal bars that spanned the entire length of the floor to the ceiling, with a small cutout for a door; also made of bars. There were no furnishings whatsoever, and she was certain that her body would be aching from sleeping on the hard floor if her powers were still gone. The door had a small slot through which they pushed food through, but the hinge only worked one way, so she couldn't stick her hand out. She could get her hand through the bars, but only barely past her wrist.

Past the door was a hallway that led to a larger room, with many more rooms branching off of it, one of which was the lab that they had taken her to. The entire building had lead plating on the walls, ceilings, and floors, so she couldn't see into any other areas. The only source of light was in the hallway, a bare bulb that flickered nervously whenever the guards walked by. Kara suspected that this was also a yellow sun lamp, based off the yellow glow and the fact that her powers were not deteriorating despite her being constantly indoors. When she first awoke in this cell, she immediately began examining every square inch of it, trying to formulate an escape plan. Now, she had investigated the room eight times, tried to goad the guards into letting important details slip, and fruitlessly used her heat vision on the metal in an attempt to melt it. When all these plans failed, there was nothing left to do but sit and allow herself to become engulfed in her thoughts.

Kara's connection to her religion had fluctuated over time. Right as soon as she came to Earth, she was more devoted than she had ever been on Krypton, praying to Rao every morning and evening and reciting all of the texts that she could remember; all in an attempt to try and keep her religion alive. It reminded her of standing in the temple with her classmates, all of them saying the words in unison. She knew that Kal-El had crystals with the texts on them, but on Krypton all children had to commit them to memory before the age of twelve- a task which she had barely accomplished before the planet exploded. Saying the words aloud made her feel the connection to her people, her culture, in a way that simply couldn't be replicated by the crystals.

As she got older, her intensity to her faith faded, and she disconnected from it almost entirely once she started college, determined to be as 'normal' as possible. Humans didn't worship Rao, so neither would she. She would usually describe herself as spiritual instead of religious, mostly because she couldn't exactly explain that she worshiped a god of a red star that was thousands of light years away. Eventually, she began reconnecting with her religion again, especially once she became Supergirl, allowing herself to truly embrace her identity for the first time. From the moment she saw Alex's plane starting to go down, she instinctively began reciting the _enai osh urvish_, a benediction for safety that she had learned so long before. The words that were ingrained into her memory sprung up with surprising ease.

Sitting alone in that cell, Kara began praying again. She had no idea when it was morning or night, but she made her best guess as to the time and prayed. When she laid on the floor and tried to sleep, she whispered the words of Rao's supplications, a plea for comfort and health for friends and loved ones.

So once Selah arrived, she figured that Rao hadn't been listening.

The girl was thrust into the cell unceremoniously, awaking Kara from her fourth sleep. The door squeaked open, and Selah fell to the floor with a thud, her hands confined in power dampening cuffs. The guards wordlessly locked the cell again, and strode away as Kara sat up, moving to the girl.

"Selah?" she asked. She could see the outline of the girl in the dim lighting. As soon as the hero's hand touched her shoulder, she stiffened up.

"They lied," she wept, cowering away. "They lied to me."

"Shh," Kara murmured, sitting down on the floor next to her.

"They said that they'd send you back if I came. They_ promised_."

"It's okay."

"I'm so sorry, Kara," she said, lifting her tearstained face. "I never meant for you to get taken, I never wanted you to end up here. It was so stupid of me to go to them, I just wanted to fix things but they took you and it's all my fault." She sobbed, fat tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

Bowing her head, Selah waited for anger to rise up in Kara's thoughts, for her to tell her how reckless she was, how idiotic her actions were, and that she endangered everyone. She waited for Kara to yell and push her away, for her to get angry and lash out. But those words never came.

"Love," Kara's voice came softly and gently, her thoughts full of compassion. She scooted closer to Selah and wrapped her arms around the girl, who accepted the embrace this time.

"I'm sorry," she said, trembling.

"It's okay," Kara replied. "I'm okay."

"Did they do anything to you?"

"No. They just took some cell samples. Nothing bad." Selah nodded. "Are you okay?"

"You're asking me if I'm okay?" the girl laughed sadly. "When you've been here for over a week because of me?"

"That long?"

"I'm sorry," she said again, her hands shaking as she wiped at her tears- an awkward task with her hands cuffed together.

"No more apologizing," Kara said firmly. "We can't change what happened, but we can figure out how to move ahead." The girl still looked unconvinced, and Kara could sense her guilt, hanging in the air above them. "Look, I don't know what I would have done in your situation. After all that you've been through, I probably would have done the same things as you did when it comes down to it. But hey," she whispered, drying the girl's teary cheek. "We will get out of here. I promise." There was no reply from Selah, who just let out a shuddery sigh. "How did they get you?"

"I left when Alex wasn't paying attention, and waited in the alley behind Noonan's until they showed up." Kara shut her eyes, trying not to think about how worried her sister must be. "It was stupid of me to think that they'd actually follow through on sending you back."

"It's okay," the hero murmured. Selah leaned into her shoulder, still trembling slightly, and Kara put an arm around the girl. "We'll be okay. Are all your powers gone?" she asked, nodding to the cuffs.

"No, just the telekinesis, as far as I can tell. My telepathy is weaker but it's still mostly here. I can still hear you." Selah bit back another yawn, and Kara smiled.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Does being put under anesthesia count?"

"Get some rest," Kara ordered. "I'll keep watch and wake you up if anything happens." The girl nodded, and curled up on the hard metal floor next to the hero, resting her head against Kara's knee. The hero pulled her cape out from behind her and draped it across Selah's body. Gently pushing a few curls off of the girl's forehead, she began humming softly until Selah drifted into an uneasy sleep.

.

"Try it again," Kara said, ignoring Selah's groan.

"I guarantee that they've put up psychic blockers around the whole facility," she said. "I won't be able to reach anyone even if I manage to send out a signal that's strong enough to overpower the cuffs."

"You never know unless we try."

"Fine," the girl shut her eyes again, sighing dramatically. The two were sitting cross-legged on opposite sides of the cell, working on Selah's telepathy as a part of Kara's latest escape plan. Concentrating her power and focusing on the image in her mind, Selah grimaced.

"It's a... spider?" The hero asked, furrowing her brow. "No, a sheep. A goat?" Groaning again, the girl opened her eyes and flopped to the floor.

"It was your childhood cat, Streaky," she said, rubbing her forehead angrily as she laid on the ground. "Let's face it, this isn't working."

"You're getting better though," Kara said. "When we first started I couldn't get anything from you."

"So if I do manage to connect with anyone at all, they'll maybe hear something vague about the concept of spiders. That will sure help us a lot." The hero gave Selah a long look, and she sighed, sitting up. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so negative. It's just frustrating."

"I know." Kara got up and crossed to Selah's side of the cell, sitting next to her. "But we have to keep trying."

"The telepathy or in general?"

"In general. We'll revisit the telepathy later."

"We could try getting the cuffs off with heat vision again?" Selah offered.

"I'm amazed by how quickly you forget the third degree burns I gave you the last time we tried that."

"Burns are better than playing telepathic '_I'm thinking of an animal_'." Kara was about to reply when the door to the hallway swung open, and Director Beta walked in, followed by a guard. Selah felt herself weaken slightly, and she noticed a green vial in the guard's hand. Turning to face Kara, she saw the hero stumble back against the wall, her face pale. Director Beta stood patiently outside of the cell as the guard unlocked it, entering as soon as the door was open.

"How are we doing this morning?" she asked in a syrupy voice. Neither replied, so she continued. "I was hoping that the Kryptonian would grace us with her presence."

"No," Selah said, anger rising in her chest. She took a step to the side, placing her body between Kara and the Director, ignoring the protest that rose up in Kara's thoughts. "You promised that you'd send her back."

"Circumstances change," Beta said lightly. "I do regret that we weren't able to uphold our end of that agreement."

"You promised," the girl insisted, not moving. "Take me instead." Kara's thoughts grew louder with this, rising to a panicked crescendo, but Selah didn't so much as flinch. "You can do whatever you want to me, but you are not going to touch her." The director pursed her lips, raising an eyebrow as she sized up the girl.

"No resisting?" she asked. The girl's stomach lurched as she nodded stiffly.

"You have my word."

"No," Kara managed to interject, trying to grab at Selah's arm with a feeble grasp. Selah glanced at the hero, her face even as she took a step forward, moving out of her reach.

"Well then." Beta glanced over at Kara, before fixing her gaze back on Selah. "Shall we?"

A guard pressed a small button on his belt before entering the cell, grabbing the girl's shoulder in the familiar hold, and she felt herself get slightly weaker as the Kryptonite got closer. Kara's thoughts filled with pain, and she fell to the floor, unable to move as they left the cell.

"Fun, isn't it?" The director asked, pointing to the guard's vial as they walked, leaving the hallway. "Concentrated Kryptonite. Much stronger than the usual kind. It can't hurt you too badly, as you aren't fully Kryptonian. But the exposure alone is enough to kill a full-blooded Kryptonian," she laughed softly. "But I'm sure it won't come to that. You'll do exactly as we say, yes?"

"I gave you my word. But if you so much as touch her," Selah threatened, her voice low.

"No resisting," Beta reminded, the ever present smile still gracing her lips. "Or we might just find out precisely how long it would take our special Kryptonite to do its job." The threat loomed over Selah as she was led through the hallways again, uncertain of what awaited her.

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_Note:_ I'd like to give credit to Darren Doyle and his website kryptonian info for the translations in this chapter. I'm hoping to use this resource more in the future, as it's super useful, and is also the site that the writers use for the show when characters speak in Kryptonian.


	16. Chapter 16

Kara jerked awake, gasping for air as she scrambled to her feet. Her heart was racing, and she tried to remind herself that it was just a dream, that she was safe, but the cold metal walls weren't a very welcoming sight. She hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep- she had been trying her best to stay awake until Selah returned, but after so many sleepless nights, even she needed rest. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cell, she desperately tried to make out the shape of the girl somewhere, sleeping on the floor underneath Kara's cape perhaps, but she already knew that Selah was still gone.

This had been one of the longest stretches yet, Kara would estimate that it was well over a full day. Sometimes they would take the girl for only a few hours, but she was usually gone for at least five or six. There had only been one other time when she had been gone for this long. When she had finally returned, she didn't say anything about what had happened, but she cried in Kara's arms for a very long time. They hadn't allowed her to heal completely, and Kara had been able to see a long thin cut that had barely begun to close up, starting at the base of the girl's neck and disappearing down the collar of her shirt.

Selah never said much about what happened in the lab, and she got very fidgety and anxious whenever Kara asked. She had kept pushing once, and asked again what had happened, but Selah became completely mute and didn't speak for hours afterwards. Sometimes she would disclose small things, like if they had done surgery or not, and where they had operated, but aside from those small pieces of information, Kara had no idea what was really going on in the lab. She had tried bargaining with the security guards, hoping to get some information, or to get them to take her instead of Selah, but the guard had only smirked, his face smug.

"Your abilities don't fit Director Beta's needs," he had said. Kara had considered zapping him with her heat vision right then and there, but she ultimately decided it wouldn't be productive, and opted for a regular glare instead.

She had never felt so powerless before. Even though she had her superpowers, they were no good to her here. She couldn't do anything to stop what was happening to Selah. Praying to Rao wasn't doing much, if she ever so much as sneezed too hard around the guards, they whipped out their power draining devices, and she had no way to contact her sister or J'onn or anyone else who could provide backup. Kara only allowed herself to cry when Selah was not in the cell, but right now she felt too frustrated for tears, too angry.

Even though she knew it was useless, she punched the wall as hard as she could. Pain momentarily sprung up in her hand, but it disappeared just as quickly, and the wall was as unmoved as ever. She hit it twice more and kicked it for good measure, before leaning against it and sliding back down onto the floor.

"J'onn," she whispered. "I know you probably can't hear me. But if you can, please come soon."

.

Kara abruptly awoke, choking on the air for the second time that night. As her brain adjusted to no longer being asleep, she stood up, closed her eyes tightly, and took a few long, deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" She whirled around to see Selah sitting against the wall, sporting a bruised face and bloody lip.

"When did you get back?" she demanded, avoiding the question as she ran a hand through her tangled hair, beginning to pace back and forth at the front of the cell.

"About an hour ago."

"You should have woken me up."

"Sorry. I know you haven't been sleeping very well, and I didn't want to disrupt you." For a few moments, the only sound was Kara's footsteps, gradually getting faster and more agitated. "Kara?" She didn't reply, but glanced over at the girl. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay. You were just mumbling a lot in your sleep, and you seem upset-"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it, Selah." Kara interrupted.

"Okay. Sorry." They were quiet again for awhile, until the hero sighed, walking back over to the wall and sitting down next to the girl.

"What did they do to you?" she asked, placing a hand under Selah's chin and looking at her bruised face.

"No surgery this time. They were testing out new weapons," the girl answered, looking down at her hands. "My powers haven't come back yet from it."

"This isn't okay," Kara said, exhaling angrily. "None of this is okay! We _have_ to get out of here." The silence returned, as they both felt the inescapable odds of escape looming over them.

"I'm sorry that you're stuck here with me," Selah said eventually, still not looking up. "It should have been just me that they got."

"We're going to get out," Kara insisted, practically on instinct.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"There was a word in Kryptonian that you kept muttering in your sleep. It sounded like 'dare-ow-ged'. What does it mean?"

"_Dhehraoghehd_," Kara corrected, her forehead creasing. "Couldn't you read it off of me?"

"Powers are gone, remember?"

"Right." She turned to look at Selah, her eyes stormy. "It means death."

"Oh."

"We're going to get out of here," Kara repeated fiercely. All Selah could do was nod in agreement.

.

"_Ehwor, ehworazh, ehworu_?" Selah said tentatively.

"Yes!" Kara exclaimed. "How are you getting so good at this?"

"You talk in your sleep a lot." The hero gently shoved Selah's shoulder, and she grinned.

"Okay, smarty pants, how would you say that in Kryptonian?"

"Um. The sentence structure is verb subject object, so... _Ehwor fis i zhind rraop rriv_."

"Nicely done."

"How do you say 'paternal first cousin once removed' in Kryptonian?" Selah asked, smirking.

"_Fyrehb_," Kara replied. "It's for any older relative on your father's side."

"What an obscure word."

"You asked." Kara paused for a moment, thinking as she smiled at the girl.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"About?"

"I always thought I was going to be teaching Kal-El how to speak Kryptonian. I guess I never realized how much I wanted to teach it to someone else until now."

"I thought you taught Alex."

"She only knows a few words and phrases. She's not very good with languages, and she got really frustrated with the pronunciations. Winn knows some too, but he learned it on his own."

"Did Kal-El learn in the fortress?" Kara nodded.

"You know, you're about the age he would have been if my pod hadn't gotten stuck." She frowned, thinking. " Or... You're the age he would have been when I was my age? No, like if I arrived on Earth when I was supposed to and Kal was still a baby, and I was still twelve years older than him-"

"I know what you're getting at," Selah said, laughing. "We have roughly the same distance in age that was between you and my father on Krypton."

"So weird," Kara muttered. "But yeah. You're a bit older, I think. He would be almost eighteen, and you're nineteen."

"Twenty," Selah corrected quietly. "Today's my birthday. November 22nd. There was a calendar in Beta's office."

"Oh."

"It's not a huge deal," the girl stammered, her hands twisting themselves together. "My mother never really celebrated my birthday. My aunt would get me cake sometimes, but only if she wasn't too busy at work, and there was never money for gifts or anything, so I'm pretty used to low-key birthdays."

"This is a little beyond low-key."

"Yeah." Selah's face was hard to read as she stared at the bars of the cell. "I didn't think I'd make it this far."

"We just have to throw a bigger party for twenty one once we're out of here, to make up for this year," Kara said. "Plus, twenty-one, you know what that means," she elbowed the girl, who rolled her eyes.

"Would alcohol even do anything to me?"

"Nope." Selah laughed quietly. "We are going to get out of here," Kara reminded. Selah didn't reply, she just looked at the hero for a long time.

"Who's Astra?" she asked abruptly, looking away from Kara.

"What?" Kara asked.

"Sorry. You just dream a lot about her. She was in your nightmare last night too, wasn't she?" The hero nodded slowly.

"She was my aunt. She died soon after I became Supergirl." Selah winced as the wave of emotion washed over her.

"Sorry," she said again. "I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious."

"It's okay. She named me, you know. After the ancient Kryptonian goddess of beauty."

"How fitting."

"She was a good person. She had her flaws, but I know she loved me."

"My aunt named me too." Selah replied. "My mother didn't want much to do with me when I was first born, but she kept insisting that I be named after her mother."

"What was her name?" The girl glanced over at Kara, smiling wryly.

"Sarranindara," she said.

"Oof."

"Yeah. My aunt chose the Andromedan word 'Selah instead. She said that Sarranindara sounded too alien."

"Valid. What does Selah mean?"

"It doesn't translate perfectly. It's a verb meaning to pause and reflect. My aunt always translated it as 'take a breath'."

"That's beautiful," Kara said. "Did you know that El means 'sun' or 'sunlight' in Kryptonian?"

"House of Sunlight?"

"Yup. And Kal means child."

"So your Kryptonian name means 'beautiful sunlight' and mine means 'take a breath, sun-child?" Selah demanded, crossing her arms.

"It's a good name."

"They should have named me Sarranindara," Selah muttered.

"Hey," Kara said, elbowing the girl. "Chin up, sun-child."

"You're the worst."

.

.

.

Again, credit is due to Darren Doyle at Kryptonian info for the translations.


	17. Chapter 17

Kara could tell that Selah was coming long before she actually entered the hallway. The lead walls blocked her vision, but she could hear the girl's heart rate, erratic and frantic as it grew closer to the cell. She jumped to her feet and went to the corner of the cell that was closest to the doorway, her hands clutching the bars, praying that the girl was alright. Slowly, the footsteps and heartbeats grew louder and louder, and Kara shut her eyes, willing them to arrive.

"What happened?" she couldn't stop herself from asking once the door finally swung open. The girl looked injured and battered, and her feet were clearly shaky. She was stumbling unsteadily behind the guard, practically being dragged along by him as they approached the cell.

"Back away from the door," he snapped in a low voice, ignoring her question.

"What happened?" she asked again, obediently taking a few steps back. The closest thing to a reply that she received was a cold glare from him as he opened the cell door.

"Kara?" Selah asked as she was roughly pushed into the cell, and she fell to the floor, biting back a cry of pain. Her hands scrabbled across the ground, desperately searching for the hero.

"Hey," Kara said as she moved to the girl, barely noticing as the door was slammed shut once more, and the guard left. Selah reached out, her hands trembling. "I'm here, it's okay." She crawled into Kara's arms, and the hero held her as she wept. "What happened, Selah? Are you okay?" she demanded.

"I can't see."

"What do you mean?"

"They put something in my eyes. An injection. I can't see." Kara tipped the girl's chin up and saw that her eyes were clouded over with a white film.

"It's okay," she murmured. "You're going to be okay, I promise."

The cell was as dim as ever, but Kara did her best to scan Selah for injuries. Her ribs weren't broken, but from the way the girl winced each time she breathed in, she would guess that they were badly bruised. She also had a gash across her forehead that was scabbed over, and her hair was matted with blood.

"It's going to be alright," the hero whispered again. "Just breathe." She held the girl, listening to her heart until it finally began to beat at a pace that was more regular and slow.

"I think I killed him." Kara sat up a little bit, and leaned back so that she could see Selah's face, but the girl's blank eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

"Who?" she asked.

"I don't know who he was, or where he came from, I'd never seen him before. They made me go into his head," Selah said, pulling away from Kara and sitting up. Her voice was gravelly and low. "He didn't have a blocker on, so I could hear everything he was thinking. It was a test of my powers, I think. They put the stuff in my eyes to make sure I couldn't see, and then they would show him a card with numbers on it, and I had to read from his thoughts what he was seeing to tell them what the card said. Then they made me really go into his mind, and I had to find stuff like his daughter's birthday, or the name of his third grade teacher." She rubbed at her eyes, which were still shut. "He was so scared of me. He could feel me in his mind, and he was _terrified_." Her voice trailed off, and she didn't say anything for a few moments.

"What happened?" Kara gently asked for a third time.

"Last week, they put a chip right here," she touched the base of her neck with a shaky hand. "I thought it was maybe a tracker or something, but-" she paused again. "When I went into his mind, Beta was in there with me."

"What?"

"The chip psychically connects me to her somehow. If I go into someone's mind, I take her along."

"Can she read thoughts like you can too?"

"I don't think so. Not yet, at least," she cleared her throat. "Once she came into this guy's head, I think it was too much for him, because he started blacking out a little bit. I'd never really entered peoples' minds like this before, but my aunt always said how it's really important to be gentle and not to go too deep, because you can hurt the host."

"She went too deep?" Kara asked. Selah nodded slowly.

"She could feel how scared he was, and that the blackouts were getting longer. But she kept digging, like she was looking for something. I tried to tell her to stop, and that she was hurting him, but she wouldn't, and I couldn't leave, she was holding me there. Eventually," she swallowed, her voice breaking. "Everything went blank, and I sort of fell out of him. I woke up back in the room, and he was slumped over, and he didn't have any thoughts-" she stopped abruptly, shutting her eyes again.

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't do it to him, Beta did that."

"I was a part of it. She wouldn't have been able to do it without me, she wouldn't have been able to hurt him like that. And what about when she doesn't need me as a bridge anymore? What about when she can go into anyone that she wants, and she can kill them?"

"We'll stop her."

"How?" Selah turned to face the hero, her empty eyes filled with tears. "How are we ever going to stop any of this?"

"I don't know," Kara admitted. "But we'll figure it out." She put an arm around the girl, but Selah's shoulders were still full of tension. "There's something else, isn't there?"

"Beta shouldn't have been able to do what she did," she said slowly. "Using my powers, she shouldn't have been able to hurt him the way that she did."

"Maybe they've figured out how to weaponize your telepathy."

"No. There wasn't anything else besides me, I could tell. The things she did, that's what-" stopping herself, Selah rubbed a hand over her face. "That's what Empath Andromedans can do."

"Like your mother?"

"Like my mother," the girl nodded slowly. "You know, her powers began to manifest a week after her twentieth birthday."

"You are not her, Selah."

"Maybe not yet. She changed too, once the powers started coming in. She wasn't always the way that she is now." She turned to look at Kara with her wide, unseeing eyes. "What if I become like her?"

"Then we will figure it out," Kara replied, tucking a stray curl behind Selah's ear. "And I will be here for you, no matter what happens."

.

"Escape plan number 47," Kara said, pacing around the cell. "The next time a guard comes to get you, you can distract him and then I'll zap him with my heat vision and knock him unconscious. Then we can leave the cell-"

"I won't be able to get out of the door," Selah interrupted, trying her best to scratch her back with her cuffed hands. "The guard presses a button on his belt every time before he takes me out of the cell. I'm ninety percent sure that there's a psychic shield that blocks the doorway, and the button disables it. Beta said how they're all over the building, and if I go through them, they detect my powers and paralyze me."

"Okay," Kara restarted. "So I can go through the door after I knock him out, press the button on his belt, and then you can follow."

"There's more shields that just that one though. I know where a few of them are, but I'm positive that there's more that I don't know about. And he has a blocker so I can't read anything off of him to figure out where the rest of them are."

"Okay." The hero furrowed her brow, and began to pace a bit faster. "We get the cuffs off, and when he comes you can psychically disable his blocker, I'll ask him where they are, and he won't be able to avoid thinking about it. Like if I tell you not to think about pink elephants, you think about?"

"Pink elephants," Selah said flatly. "Except instead of pink elephants, we both get shot with power dampeners and tortured."

"I do have super speed, I could move faster than him."

"So how are we going to get the cuffs off?" The hero sighed and sat down on the floor next to Selah.

"Right."

"Can you get this spot for me?" the girl asked, gesturing vaguely to her back. Rolling her eyes, Kara scratched the girl's back, before flopping down to lie on the floor.

"So," she began. "To recap, in order to get out of the cell, we either need a key or we wait for the guard to open it."

"Getting out isn't the issue so much as avoiding the psychic detectors. We either need to know where every single one is, and how to shut them off, or I have to have my powers blown out."

"Would that work?" Kara asked, sitting up. Selah shrugged.

"Whenever they walk me to the lab and I have my powers, the guard disables a shield a few feet away from the door. But when they take me out and I don't have my powers, he doesn't disable it and nothing happens."

"So if your powers are gone, we can get past the shields."

"And then we'd just need to find a way out of this potentially underground maze that's completely lined with lead and has constant patrol."

"The guard might know the layout."

"I think you're also forgetting that I'm still completely blind, and if I don't have my powers then I can't see anything from your thoughts." Kara groaned and laid back down, pressing her cheek against the cold metal floor. The door swung open, and a guard wordlessly pushed two bowls of broth through the gap in the door, before exiting again.

"Dinner," the hero said dully, sitting up and handing the bowl that was slightly more full to Selah, looking glumly down at her own. "Do you know what I'd do for a potsticker right now?" She asked. "I'd kill a man."

"Too soon," the girl replied, taking a long sip of the soup.

"You know I didn't mean it like that."

"I know." She set the bowl down on the floor. "Beta can send me thoughts now. This morning I heard her voice, asking me how I slept."

"That's new and horrifying. What did you tell her?"

"I didn't say anything back, I was traumatized." Selah made a face as she drank more of the weak broth. "She's getting stronger."

"What does that mean?"

"She's going to be able to use the powers on her own soon, she won't need me as a bridge. I won't have any use to her anymore."

"And we both know that they're only keeping me here as leverage, to keep you compliant" Kara added." You'll do what they say because otherwise they'll kill me. So if they don't need you, they don't need me either."

"It's probably too much to hope they'll just send us home and thank us for all the help?"

"Probably. How long do you think it will be until she's ready to do it by herself?" Selah shrugged.

"A week? Two maybe?"

"So we have a week to escape."

"Maybe two."

.

.

.


	18. Chapter 18

It had become a fairly regular occurrence for Kara to watch Selah be taken for a few hours every day, and then to be returned with surgical wounds that were still mostly unhealed, but this time felt different as she watched the girl being led into the cell. Her posture was sharper, and she was hardly shaking or fidgeting at all, which was rare for her on a good day. It was unheard of for a day after she had had surgery or tests done.

"Selah?" The hero asked, but the girl waited until she was in the cell and the door had closed again to reply.

"The guard is gone?" she asked quietly, her head down.

"Yeah," Kara replied. "Your arms, what did they do?" she demanded, taking one of the girl's hands and examining the long cuts that stretched wrist to elbow on the girl's arms.

"It doesn't matter," Selah said, pulling her arm away impatiently. "I know how we're going to escape."

"What?"

"You know how usually when they operate or just when my powers are gone, first my body heals itself up and then it takes awhile longer for my telepathy and stuff to come back?" Kara nodded. "It's been changing. They come back really fast now, long before anything is healed. I think it maybe has something to do with all of the empath powers and stuff. When I think of it, I don't ever remember my mother's psychic powers ever being gone, even when she was hurt and the rest of her powers were regenerating."

"What does that mean?"

"I've learned that the doctor turns her psychic blocker off whenever she operates. It buzzes a little bit, and that annoys her when she's trying to work, and she knows that my powers are gone when I'm under the red sun lamps. But she always turns it back on once I'm almost healed, which was usually long before my telepathy would be back. Now though, I can hear thoughts almost as soon as I wake up from the anesthesia, before my body has even really started healing."

"So you know what she's been thinking about?" Selah nodded.

"I didn't say anything to her because I thought it might be useful, and I was right. Mostly she just thinks about knitting, so I guess I know how to knit now. But today, she was thinking about how her shift was almost done, and she was excited to go home, and she hoped her boyfriend had made her dinner but probably not because he doesn't do anything useful even though he doesn't have a job and he just sits at home all day, and her mother was right about him, and-"

"Your point?" Kara asked flatly, raising one eyebrow.

"Sorry. She thought about leaving, Kara. I saw the route that she takes out of the building and to a parking garage where her car is. We're kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and the garage is still underground but there's a ramp that leads up to the surface. It connects to a road, which eventually will take us back to the city."

"And you know how to get all the way to the city?"

"Not quite," Selah admitted. "She got distracted before the thought got all the way to her apartment. But once we're outside I can probably send a signal out to J'onn or my aunt."

"Probably?"

"I'm like, ninety-two percent sure that I can."

"It's risky," Kara said.

"What other chance do we have? When are we ever going to get another opportunity like this?" The hero hesitated, biting her lip as she looked away from the girl, thinking.

"Fine."

.

Kara glanced over at Selah as the guard entered the hallway. The girl's face was emotionless, her cloudy eyes closed tightly.

"Back from the door," he said robotically, and they both took a few steps back. Kara watched intently as the guard pressed the button on his belt and began idly fumbling with his keys. Finally selecting the right key, he opened the door, and grunted at Selah. Before the girl could take a step, Kara ignited her eyes, lunging forwards and zapping him squarely in the chest with her heat vision. He yelled in pain or anger or surprise, or a mixture of all three things, and fell forwards, a hand clutching at his chest. His keys fell to the floor, making a metallic clanking, and Kara watched in horror as the man's body fell into the door. She tried to move fast enough to stop him, or to push him out of the way, but she didn't make it in time, and the door closed with a decisive bang.

"What do we do?" Selah asked, her voice panicked and stuttering, having read the interaction off of Kara's thoughts.

"I don't know," Kara replied.

"They're going to expect me in that lab in five minutes. When I'm not there, they'll come here and find this. Kara, they'll-" she took a quick shaky breath. "They'll kill us. What are we going to do?"

"I- I don't know."

"An octopus pulls off its own limbs in captivity," the girl muttered, squeezing her eyes shut and rocking back and forth on her heels.

"What?"

"Just something Lena said."

"How is this relevant to anything that is going on right now?"

"If we get the cuffs off, I can open the door psychically."

"We've talked through this a million times, Selah. We can't get the cuffs off without," Kara began, before it dawned on her. "No. No way."

"What else are we going to do?"

"I am not cutting your hands off."

"Not my whole hand. My thumbs will regrow. If you heat vision my thumbs off, I can slip out of the cuffs and get the door open."

"No, Selah."

"Look, man I'm not excited about it either, but it's pretty much our only option right now. We've already wasted way too much time." Kara ran a hand over her face angrily, knowing that the girl was right. Selah wordlessly sat on the floor, and put her cuffed hands flat on the ground, her thumbs extended. "Please, Kara?"

An hard pit had been settling in Kara's stomach from the moment the guard had entered the hallway, but it became a sinkhole as she stood in front of the girl, and directed her gaze onto Selah's hands. Glancing up quickly to the girl's face, she saw that it was determined, and she knew there was no other options.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered as her eyes lit up. She tried to ignore the girl's scream of pain, instead making sure that she had completely cut off the thumb before letting her heat vision dim again. Dropping to her knees, the sinkhole in her chest grew as she put a hand on Selah's cheek, watching the tears flowing from the girl's blank eyes.

"Do the other one," she said through gritted teeth, her voice rough. The hollow feeling in Kara's chest grew even further as she cut the girl's other thumb off and Selah cried out again.

"It's done," she said. She tried her best to wipe away Selah's tears, but her hands were so shaky that the task proved impossible. The yellow sunlight shining weakly from the hall lamp had already healed off the first hand, and her second was beginning to close up as well.

"Help me get the cuffs off," the girl said, her voice still raspy. "I'll open the door." Kara did her best to ignore how badly Selah's hands were trembling as she slipped the power dampeners off of the girl's now completely healed thumbless hands.

"You're good to open the door?" Selah nodded, and she squeezed her teary eyes shut, tipping her head to the left. Kara heard the lock click, and the cell swung open.

"Let's go," she said, taking one of Selah's hands, but the girl hesitated.

"We still don't know where all of the shields are," she said. "I have to blow out my powers."

"If you do that, you'll be completely blind," Kara protested.

"Better than paralyzed," she retorted. Taking a deep breath, the hero reluctantly dropped Selah's hand, and the girl turned towards one of the Nth metal walls. She opened her blind eyes, and concentrated her heat vision, directing it onto the metal wall in front of her. A high pitched buzzing began to fill the room and the lights around them began flickering frantically, swinging anxiously on their chains. The noise rose to a crescendo, making Kara wince, until finally Selah crumpled to the floor, her eyes clenched shut.

"Selah?" Kara asked, rushing to her side.

"I'm okay," the girl nose was bleeding sluggishly, and she swiped at it. "Ugh. Why is my life once again proving to be just a weak parody of _Stranger_ Things?" she asked as she unsteadily got to her feet. "We have to go."

"Do not let go of my arm," the hero ordered as they turned to the doorway and began to walk out of the cell.

"I won't." Kara felt Selah's body stiffen as they walked through the door, anticipating an electric shock, but she relaxed as none came, and they passed through the doorway safely.

"Where do we go now?" she asked.

"Straight for awhile, and then take the first left. Do you remember the way to the lab?" Kara nodded before remembering that the girl couldn't see her.

"Yes," she said.

"Basically just go that way, but turn right just before you come up to the door," Selah stumbled a little bit on the door frame as they left the hallway, but caught herself again. "Do you hear anyone coming?" It was hard for Kara to hear anything over the nearly deafening sound of Selah's heartbeat, which was going far too fast, but she concentrated, closing her eyes.

"No," she answered. "I hear someone in the lab, but her heart rate doesn't suggest that she's agitated at all."

"Good." Following Selah's directions, the two carefully made their way through the maze of winding passageways, trying to be as quiet as was possible.

"What now?" Kara whispered as they came up towards the lab and turned right.

"Next left. Then the hallway branches off into three, and you have to go straight. The exit to the garage is the two rights, a left, a right, and a left after that, but there's long segments of hallway between each turn." The hero heard steady footsteps dimly in the distance, and her heart dropped.

"Someone's coming," she said.

"From where?" Selah asked, her voice anxious.

"To the left. They're not far away," she bit her lip. "I'm going to pick you up, and I'll use my super speed. Will we make it to the door in time?"

"Maybe? I'm not sure."

"Good enough." Scooping up the girl in her arms, Kara began moving as fast as she could, focusing on the goal ahead of her, but the footsteps kept getting closer and louder, the sound amplified by her nerves. "We're not going to make it," she hissed, slowing down. "They'll cut us off before we get there."

"Take a left," Selah said. "That goes towards a maintenance closet. They probably won't be going there."

"Unless they're specifically looking for their two missing aliens," Kara hissed.

"Still better odds for us than if we run directly into them in a stretch of hallway with no exits." Anxiety rose in the hero's chest as she turned left, and followed the winding passageway all the way down to the door at the end.

"Now what?" she asked. "We just sit here?"

"I guess." Pushing herself up against the wall, Kara took a few deep breaths, listening to the footsteps as they grew closer still. They were now only a few hallways away. She could now make out two distinct sets of footsteps, guards, she assumed. "Are they still there?" Selah asked.

"Shh," Kara put a hand on the girl's arm. The footsteps were now on the main branch of the hallway that they had just exited, and the hero's heart stopped as they paused abruptly. She tried not to so much as breathe, and willed Selah to do the same, wishing that she was telepathic.

"Reports from the transport team?" one guard said.

"Negative."

"The subject was supposed to arrive three minutes ago. Should we check it out?" the other replied.

"Yes," the first guard sighed. "We don't get paid enough for this."

"How's your wife been?"

"Oh don't get me started on her." The footsteps began again, and Kara waited until they had left the hallway and begun to fade away again to exhale.

"We have to move, now," she said. "If they don't already know we're gone, they will soon."

"Okay," Selah replied, wavering on her feet a little as she moved away from the wall. Kara picked her up once more, and they tentatively re-entered the hallway. Finding it deserted, Kara refocused herself on their goal, the door to the parking garage. The only thing that separated them from that door, from freedom, was two more long stretches of empty hallway. Kara swiftly made her way through them, elation rising in her chest as it finally came into view. The door frame was slightly larger than the usual ones, subtly marking it as important, and the door itself was made of a heavier metal, with a key card panel beside it that Kara promptly zapped with her heat vision.

"We made it," she gasped. Then the door slid open with a hiss, and Kara felt Selah's body tense up instinctively.

"How kind of you to join me," Beta said. The Director stood only a few feet away, her hands folded delicately across her body, and an evil smile spread on her face.

"How did you know?" Kara demanded, the joy inside of her deflating into the familiar pit.

"You really think I am so stupid as to leave my facilities un-monitored?" Beta asked, a scornful smile on her face. "Every square inch of this place is bugged. If you so much as sneezed, I had a team studying the surveillance tapes and documenting it. Getting 037," she nodded at Selah. "Out of the cuffs, now I must admit that I didn't expect you to go that far. Very ingenuitive." Walking over to the hero, who was still holding Selah, she took one of the girl's hands, which were now healed off completely, showing now signs of damage- beyond the missing thumbs. "Of course, I can work around unexpected." She patted Selah's hand before walking away again.

"So, what now?" The hero asked. "You're going to kill us?"

"No," Beta purred, "Not just yet. We still have use for you. For now, at least."

"Put me down," Selah whispered.

"What-" Kara hissed back, but the girl just looked up at the hero with an unreadable expression. "Please tell me you have a plan," she muttered as she lowered Selah to her feet.

"About seventeen percent of one."

"That's so not reassuring."

"Let's move past the scheming, shall we?" Beta asked brightly, cutting off their whispered conversation. "I have won. You," she turned to Kara and Selah, standing side by side. "Have lost. It's nothing to be ashamed about, or disappointed by. It is simply a fact. So." The woman spun on her heel, and put a hand into her coat pocket. "Now it's time to move on to the next adventures." She pulled out a power dampener, and began toying with the dials on the side.

"I know that you have my psychic powers," Selah said, taking a step closer to Beta. "Do you have my mind-reading yet?" Irritation flickered across the woman's face, but she quickly regained her composure.

"In due time, it will come. Each day I grow stronger, as you do."

"So you don't know what I'm thinking?" The director didn't reply, and instead flipped a switch on the side of the device and pointed it directly at the girl. "Good." The end of the dampener lit up, and Selah flicked her head to the right. The blue energy draining bullet shot out of the machine, but almost as soon as it emerged, it began slowing down until it hung motionless, suspended in the air halfway between Selah and the director.

"Enough of these games," Beta spat, her eyes blazing with anger.

"Only fun when you're winning?" Selah replied, her blank eyes reflecting the blue of the energy ball. "Well, let's move on to other adventures." She closed her eyes, and bowed her head. The ball began agitatedly bouncing up and down, vibrating back and forth. The girl lifted a hand, and held it outstretched towards the ball. Taking a deep breath, her hand flashed forwards in a pushing motion, and even with her super senses, Kara was hardly able to follow the path of the blue light as it flew back towards Beta, fitting itself perfectly back into the muzzle of the power dampener.

The whole world was still for one perfect second, and Selah's outstretched hand- silhouetted by the dim blue light- was unwavering. But Kara blinked, and then everything exploded, sending out a shock wave strong enough to knock her to the ground. She saw Selah fly backwards, and Beta's form disappeared as it was completely engulfed in the blue light. The hero struggled to keep her eyes open as she desperately tried to stay awake, she had to find Selah, they had to escape, they had to get back to the city.

"_I can't-_" she managed to whisper, her cheek pressed against the cold concrete floor. "_I need to-_"

But the comforting darkness overtook her.

.

.

.


	19. Chapter 19

The sound of birds singing was the first thing that Selah heard as her mind tried its best to wake back up. She was lying on the ground, in the dirt. Her entire body was sore, and she groaned as she groggily shifted her weight.

"Selah?" Kara's voice asked, and the girl opened her eyes weakly. She was surprised to realize that she could see again, but everything was still very blurry. A blonde haired blob entered her field of view- which she assumed was Kara, and she tried her best to sit up a little bit.

"Where are we?" she asked, her voice raspy and dry.

"Hey, slow down," Kara insisted, bracing the girl's head as she kept trying to push herself up. "Go easy, love." Dizziness washed over Selah, and she slumped back down to the ground as the memories began to return. She remembered the lab, and the parking garage. She remembered seeing Beta, the woman's eyes filled with rage and insanity as she pointed the power dampener towards her. And then she remembered everything exploding, and her world becoming swallowed up with blue fire.

"What happened?" she mumbled, rubbing a hand over her blurry eyes.

"Slow down," Kara repeated, putting a hand on Selah's grimy cheek. She could feel the hero's anxiety, how worried she had been, and she tried to sit up again, this time managing to prop herself up on her elbows, leaning up against Kara's knee.

"What happened?" she asked again, more lucidly this time.

"I woke up in the parking garage." Kara replied, taking a long, deep breath." I don't know how long I was out for, but it couldn't have been very long because the guards hadn't gotten there yet. You were unconscious, and you were burned pretty badly, mostly around your eyes and face. I thought-" the hero cleared her throat, her voice shaking. "I didn't think that you had made it, but I picked you up and got out of the garage. My powers were still gone, so I couldn't go very fast but I just kept moving."

"And we ended up here?" Kara nodded.

"No one has come looking for us yet, but I moved us every few days just to be safe."

"How long have I been out?"

"Four days. You started healing up around the first day or so, and you woke up a few times but not for very long." Closing her eyes again, Selah sat up a little more, now leaning against Kara's shoulder.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I was afraid to leave you alone for too long so I haven't explored too much. This forest is huge, I flew above the trees and it goes on for miles and miles. I couldn't see the edges of it in any direction." Selah shut her eyes tightly and leaned forwards, beginning to concentrate.

"What are you doing?" the girl didn't reply, tipping her head back and trying to reach out with her mind. "Selah?"

"I can't find her," she whispered.

"Who?"

"My aunt. I can't reach her. J'onn either."

"Are you sure that your powers are back?"

"I can hear you." Selah bit her lip and shut her eyes again, tighter this time.

"Go easy, Selah. I don't want you passing out again."

"Why can't I hear her?" the girl demanded, running a hand through her hair in frustration.

"Hey, don't jump to any conclusions right now. You were unconscious for days, maybe you just need a little longer to recharge. Or maybe something has changed with how you reach out now, with the new powers."

"Yeah," the girl replied, but Kara could see that she was unconvinced.

"You need to eat or drink something," the hero said, indiscreetly trying to change the subject. Selah was too tired to track her as she darted off. She returned a millisecond later, holding a wooden bowl filled with water which she handed to the girl.

"Where did this come from?" she asked, tapping the bowl as she took a sip.

"I made it."

"How?"

"Heat visioned a log. Not to brag but the first badge I got as a girl scout was 'wilderness survival'."

"All those girl scouts with heat vision."

"Yup." Selah took another long sip of the water, trying to clear away the rest of the fogginess in her mind.

"So what happens now?" she asked.

.

"We're over top of Michigan right now?" Selah asked, squinting down at the distant ground below them. The two were flying back to National City together, the cool night sky blanketing them as they soared under the stars.

"Yep," Kara replied, smiling as the wind blew on her face. "I thought you said that the lab was near the city."

"Look, I just saw the doctor going to _a_ city. She didn't specify which one."

"Her thoughts didn't give anything away to the fact that we were in northern _Canada_?"

"Canadians don't think that different from people in California, I guess," Selah answered. "Hey, at least I can say that I've traveled to another country now."

"Is this your first time flying?"

"Yeah. It was strictly prohibited by my mother and my aunt. They did their best to stay under the radar as far as the whole alien thing went, and I guess that flying is a bit of a giveaway that you're not from Earth."

"It was the same for me with the Danvers. Eliza used to say that if I went out flying she'd never get pizza ever again."

"Oof."

"Hey, don't be rude. I had just been introduced to pizza, and the thought of losing it was," Kara shuddered dramatically. "Too much to bear."

"Alright," Selah said, rolling her eyes.

"We'll have to go flying together once things are more normal again."

"I'd like that." They flew in silence for awhile, as the lights of the city grew closer. "So like, how do we land?"

"With our feet?" Kara replied.

"No," the girl groaned. "I mean how do we land unnoticed in a highly populated city?"

"I usually just drop down in an alleyway, or straight into my apartment, but I'm guessing that we should go to the DEO first-" she trailed off as she noticed that Selah had stopped abruptly, and was hovering behind her. "What's up?"

"I hear her," the girl replied.

"What?"

"My aunt. I hear her, in Noonan's. Can we-?"

"Fine. Just don't tell Alex." The two began descending down to the city, landing mostly inconspicuously beside Noonan's. Together, they walked back into the city from the same alleyway that they had both been taken from.

"Is she going to be mad?" Selah asked, twisting her hands together as they began walking to the door.

"Almost definitely," Kara answered, putting her arm around the girl. "But she loves you, and I am sure that more than anything, she'll be glad that you're safe." Selah nodded, looking down at herself.

"I look like a mess," she said. Kara took in the sight of the girl, overgrown curls, dried blood caked around her forehead, old clothes covered in ash and dirt and blood, and she tried her best to smile, knowing that she probably looked just as disheveled.

"Hey, at least you're not the one in a cape," she quipped. "It's not that bad. We'll be able to get cleaned up soon." Selah nodded, and they entered the coffee shop.

"I'll be with you in a moment," Lea said, her back to the door as she sorted bags of coffee. Selah and Kara exchanged a glance as the girl cleared her throat. The woman sighed as she finally turned around and walked to the register, still not looking up. "What would you like?" she asked flatly.

"Aunt Lea," Selah said, taking a few steps forwards. "It's me." The woman looked up, her face confused. She stared blankly at the girl, raising her eyebrows expectantly as she took in the sight of the grimy girl and Kara in her superhero suit. "Selah?" she added.

"Sorry kid, do I know you?" Lea asked, frowning.

"What do you mean? I'm your niece."

"I don't have a niece," the woman replied, clearly taken aback.

"But-"

"Look, are you going to order or not? Because we close in ten minutes, and I just want to go home." Selah blinked a few times, her body tense as she stood frozen on the spot, dumbfounded. "Alright. Go take a shower or something instead of messing around here," Lea said, throwing a towel over her shoulder and walking to the back room.

"Why doesn't she know me?" the girl asked quietly, as Kara walked up beside her.

"I don't know," she replied. "Let's go to the DEO, okay? We'll get answers there." Selah nodded numbly, and let Kara lead her out of the coffeeshop, and they began walking the few blocks to the agency.

"Do you think they did something to her? To make her forget me?" the girl abruptly asked as they waited at a red light.

"I don't know," Kara answered. "Why couldn't she at least tell that you were Andromedan?"

"Normal Andromedans can't connect with Empaths as easily."

"Could you still hear her?" Selah nodded.

"She really had no idea who I was."

"I'm sorry, love. We'll figure all of this out."

The two turned a corner, entering the street that the DEO was on, but they both stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Um," Kara said. The building was no longer there, and in its place was a small, grassy park. There was no sign that a skyscraper had been recently torn down, or that one had ever even occupied the lot in the first place.

"Was that always there?" Selah asked, pointing to the teeter-totter.

"We need to go to my apartment," the hero said, darting back up into the air.

"What, why?" the girl demanded, taking off as well and following close behind as they wove through the city.

"To see if it's still my apartment." Kara stopped outside of her building, hovering by the windows. Thick, woolen curtains obscured the inside, which already was enough confirmation, but she squinted, peering through the walls. A young Asian woman was on the phone in the kitchen, and an elderly man sat on a couch that was definitely not hers, watching the news on a television that was definitely not hers.

"What does this mean?" Selah asked.

"I don't think we're on our Earth anymore."

.

"What are we doing here?" Kara hissed as Selah strode through the gates of National City University, ignoring the stares of other students. They had slept in a mostly empty alleyway last night, which certainly didn't help their appearances. They had also flown to Alex, J'onn, and Selah and Nia's apartments, as well as virtually all of their other friends' houses, only to find them either inhabited by other people, or that the buildings were not even there in the first place. It had been a mostly sleepless night, partially due to the physical discomfort that came with sleeping in an alleyway, but also because of Selah's incessant questions about the multiverse and how it worked, so Kara was feeling a little on edge as they walked across the campus.

"I can override the access panels to get into university buildings with my telepathy," Selah replied. "I forgot my student card once, so I figured I'd test it out, and it works. I can get us into the library to do some research, and also into the gym so we can use the showers by the pool."

"Okay," Kara said. "What if someone asks us what we're doing on a university campus on Saturday? Is it even Saturday on this Earth? Does this Earth still have seven day weeks?"

"Calm down," the girl said, tilting her head. "That boy's mind says it's Saturday," she said, pointing to a scruffy looking college student in a red sweater. "Happy?"

"Just thrilled."

"You need to take some deep breaths, man."

"Selah, I am wearing kevlar, okay?" Kara snapped, gesturing to her super suit. " I look insane!"

"Can't you just de-materialize your suit or whatever?"

"No, because the nanites are triggered by a motion detector in my glasses, and Rao alone knows where those are."

"Well on the plus side, no one has recognized you yet, so there's probably no Supergirl on this Earth. You just look like you're excited for Halloween."

"It's practically December."

"Hey, you don't know when Halloween is on this Earth. For all you know, it could be today." They arrived at the gym, and Selah opened the door, holding it as she ushered Kara in.

"Now what?"

"Showers are to the left. After you."

.

About an hour later, they had both showered and managed to mostly clean their clothes, although Selah's shirt was still bloodstained around the collar. Kara was still in the suit, although she had removed her cape and tied it around her waist like one would do with a sweatshirt, in an attempt to make the red and blue costume more subtle. Selah decided not to comment on it, knowing that the woman was already going through some stuff.

"We need to figure things out quickly," Kara hissed as they walked towards the library, covering her face as a girl tried to snap a photo of her in the suit. "All it takes is one of these pictures to go up on social media and Beta knows where we are."

"I barely survived that explosion," Selah replied, "Is it wishful thinking to assume that maybe she didn't?"

"What about the guards then? Or the other Director? Or the doctors? Or-"

"I know. I've been deleting the photos of you off of everyone's phones anyways."

"You can do that?"

"Telekinetic powers, man." They went into the library, Selah smiling politely at the security guards who stared incredulously at the duo. "Hi, hope you're having a good day," she said as they walked past.

"I hate this."

"I think it's going pretty well."

"Yeah, okay."

"Hi, can I book a computer please?" Selah asked as they approached a woman seated behind the main desk, who wordlessly handed the girl a laminated number, raising an eyebrow at Kara. "Thank you so much."

"I hate this," Kara repeated.

"You're not even trying to blend in. Stop putting your hands on your hips so much, and like, slouch more." They sat down at the computer, and Selah stared at the keyboard for a second.

"Should I type?" the hero offered.

"Yeah, I forgot that I still don't have thumbs." Kara slid over to the seat in front of the monitor, and turned it on.

"When do those usually come back?" she asked.

"I don't know, they should start growing soon. What should we search?" Kara opened the internet browser, and tentatively typed in _Supergirl_.

"We could read an article about super girl names for your baby," she deadpanned.

"So no Supergirl on this Earth. What about the DEO?"

"If you googled the DEO on our Earth, nothing would come up. That's kind of the point of an undercover government organization."

"Right." Kara searched _Superman_, but once again, nothing relevant showed up. It was the same for Kara Danvers and Clark Kent. L-Corp didn't seem to even exist, even under the Luther Corp name. As far as Kara could tell, Lex and Lena Luthor were science partners working to cure cancer out of a lab in Kansas. Alex Danvers was a doctor in Seattle, a brain surgeon, and unsurprisingly, there were no results for J'onn J'onnz.

"At least Cat-Co still exists," Selah offered, after Kara's umpteenth Google search.

"Yeah but Cat Grant has absolutely no idea who I am, because there is no Kara Danvers."

"So you don't exist on this Earth at all?"

"Maybe Krypton wasn't destroyed here, and so Kal and I never came."

"It would explain why there's no DEO." Selah said, leaning back in her chair as she thought. "The whole agency was formed because of Fort Rozz landing here, which it never would have done if Krypton is still around."

"And Lex started going insane because of his jealousy towards Superman. But there's no Superman to make him jealous anymore, so I guess he and Lena are pioneers in oncology research."

"So basically on this Earth none of our friends know each other, and so none of them can help us get back to _our_ Earth." Kara groaned, putting her face into her hands.

"And it doesn't seem like Barry or Oliver exist either, so we can't recruit them."

"This Earth sucks," Selah replied a little too loudly, gaining some confused stares from the students nearby. She cleared her throat awkwardly, "uh, climate change, am I right? It's... bad," she said, pointing to a dark haired girl who was sitting a few desks away. She didn't reply, and slowly put her headphones in. "Okay, what do we do?"

"We try to talk to Alex, maybe" Kara suggested as they logged out of the computer and went back to return the number to the main desk. "Damn it, my glasses are on another Earth," she groaned. "I'm never getting out of this suit."

"Maybe someone will pick up your glasses over there, and that will make it de-materialize. Do nanite signals work across the multiverse?"

"This is what I get for letting Brainy design me a suit." The hero handed the laminated card back over to the librarian, who seemed just as confused by Kara's appearance as she had been the first time. "To Seattle?" she asked as they began walking out of the library, but Selah didn't reply. The girl had stopped walking, and was standing in front of a large picture frame, peering at it intently.

"Kara?" she asked.

"What?" Kara demanded, turning to look at the picture. It was a group photo of about twenty professors, captioned 'Psychology Department Faculty, Spring 2019', with their names listed below. "What am I looking at?" As an answer, Selah pointed to a blonde woman in the middle row. The photo was grainy and not terribly focused, and the woman was older than Kara, but it was unmistakable.

"So you do exist on this Earth after all," Selah said, still pointing at Linda Lee, psychology professor.

.

.

.


	20. Chapter 20

"Let the record state that I still think this is a bad idea," Kara muttered as Selah peered carefully around a corner before quietly creeping into the hallway.

"How else are we going to meet with her?" the girl asked, keeping her voice low. "It's not like we have her phone number. Or a phone."

"So what's our plan? We barge into her office and say, 'Hey man, I'm you from another Earth,'" Kara retorted.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"That's a terrible plan, Selah." They approached a heavy wooden door with a small plaque on it that read _Professor L. Lee_ on it. Selah pointed to the sign, clearly proud of herself, and Kara rolled her eyes.

"Do you want to knock? Am I?" the girl asked, gesturing to the door. "I'll just... yeah." She knocked firmly on the door, three sharp raps that echoed through the dim hallway, and an audible sigh came from the office.

"Office hours were yesterday," Professor Lee called through the shut door. Her voice sounded tired.

"May we come in?" Selah asked. "It's kind of urgent." The door swung open, and Kara's doppelganger glared out at them. Her face was unimpressed, but it shifted once she saw Kara.

"Shut the door," she said quietly, retreating back into her office. Kara and Selah exchanged a quick look before entering the room, Kara carefully closing the door behind her. The office was small and untidy, with large stacks of papers and books on every surface- including the chair across from the professor's desk, which she motioned for Kara to sit in. She awkwardly pushed the textbooks and unmarked essays off of the chair, and Selah began examining one of the bookcases on the opposite wall, running a finger over the spines of the dusty books as she tried to provide the two Kara Zor-Els some privacy.

"I'm sure you have questions," Kara said as she sat carefully onto the well-worn wooden chair. Professor Lee was seated in her office chair, and she didn't respond. "My name is Kara Danvers on my Earth."

"Which one is that?" the woman asked.

"Earth 38. Are you familiar with the theory of the multiverse?"

"Yes. However, you are the first visitors I have met. Who is she?" she asked, nodding to Selah.

"I'm Kal-El's daughter," Selah replied, looking up from an old book that she had begun to idly read.

"Kal-El survived on your Earth?"

"What happened to him here?" Kara demanded.

"His pod never made it to Earth. Mine left first, and his was pulled into the Phantom Zone in the wake of Krypton's destruction. To my knowledge it is still there."

"The opposite happened to me. His was sent out first, and mine was in the Phantom Zone for twenty four Earth years. So you landed in-"

"1979." Linda finished. "I was sent to the Midvale Orphanage."

"So you're 54?" Selah interrupted. Linda raised an eyebrow, and she awkwardly added, "You look good."

"Yes, well if anyone asks, I have a very good plastic surgeon." Linda continued. "When I was fifteen, I was adopted by Edna and Fred Lee, and I moved to Chicago with them. I studied Humanities and Psychology at Georgetown, got my Masters degree in Central City, and then my doctorate. I began my career at the University of Chicago, then I taught in Metropolis for awhile, and I've been in National City for the past five years."

"So you never became Supergirl?" Kara asked.

"Is that what all of this is about?" Linda replied, pointing to Kara's suit.

"When I landed on Earth, I brought Fort Rozz with me. Kal-El and I dedicated our lives to protecting Earth from threats of all kinds, including the prisoners that escaped." Selah zoned out as Kara began the familiar story, how she landed on Earth and realized her cousin was no longer a baby, how she was adopted by the Danvers, and her journey to becoming Supergirl.

"So what brought you here to this Earth, and why are you in my office on a Monday evening?" The professor asked once Kara's story was finished.

"Well," Selah felt Kara's uncertainty and apprehension about how to begin, so she shut the book- sending a plume of dust into the air- and set it back onto the shelf.

"I was taken by an organization that specializes in alien experimentation when I was fourteen," she said, leaning against the bookcase. "I was their primary test subject, and they did all sorts of research on me and my biology. Eventually I was found and rescued by Kara's sister, Alex, but then the organization abducted both of us and sent us here, I guess. We don't know how to get back to our Earth."

"I'm not sure how much help I can be," Linda said, taken aback. "I'm just a psychology professor, I have no experience in the multiverse."

"Do you have any connections that could help us?" Kara asked. "In the physics department, or something?" The professor leaned back in her chair thoughtfully.

"I might know one person," she said.

.

"He's a bit eccentric," Linda warned as they walked across campus. She had given Kara a mauve cardigan and a long skirt to wear over her super suit, which meant that they attracted far less attention this time. The bottom of her cape still stuck out of the bottom, but Kara was doing her best to ignore it. "And he's only been teaching for a few years. But he's your best shot at getting home." They entered the physics building, a tall, grey-bricked building with ivy trailing up the walls.

"Are you sure he's still here?" Selah asked. "It's almost eleven at night."

"He stays here until two or three in the morning on most nights," Linda replied. "I think we'll be fine." They reached a wooden door, which was slightly ajar. The professor knocked, and a loud groan came from inside the office. She frowned and knocked again, and the door swung open all the way.

"What?" the man demanded. He had dark hair and eyes obscured by a large pair of safety goggles, and his lab coat was badly singed down one side. "I'm right in the middle of-"

"Winn?" Kara interrupted. Selah could feel the hero's surprise and familiarity with the man. For the first time, he seemed to actually look at the three people standing outside of his door.

"Wha-" he stammered, pointing back and forth from Linda to Kara.

"Can we come in?" Linda asked. When he didn't reply and continued glancing quickly between the two women, his eyes wide, the professor simply pushed past him into the room, and Kara and Selah followed behind her. His office was uncomfortably warm, and even untidier than Linda's. There was yards of tangled wire spewed across the floor, various mismatched machines lining two walls, and burn marks on the ceiling. His desk was stacked high with a vast array of papers and empty coffee cups, and there appeared to be three taxidermied owls stacked beneath it.

"What is going on here?" he asked Linda, finally able to make a complete sentence. "Who is she and how does she know me?"

"I know you from my Earth," Kara replied. "You're Winn Schott, you're one of my best friends."

"Winn Schott Junior," he muttered.

"She's me from another Earth," Linda said. "These two have gotten stuck on our Earth and they are trying to get back." Selah waved at the man as his eyes flicked over her, clearly trying to wrap his mind around everything that he was being told. He smiled awkwardly at her.

"And you want me to help them with that?" he asked, turning back to Linda and removing his goggles so that he could run a hand over his eyes.

"That would certainly be very nice," Kara answered.

"Okay, okay." He began scurrying around the office, digging through boxes and drawers. "Look, I have a paper that I wrote around here somewhere about the theory of the multiverse. That could maybe be helpful." He opened a desk drawer- disturbing the owl stack and sending the smallest one sprawling, before crossing to a few filing cabinets beside the window. The room was growing steadily warmer, the heat seemingly coming from a machine in the corner that was pulsating gently, and Kara took off the cardigan. "Oh, it was in the-!" Winn began, whirling around. "Why are you wearing a cape?"

"Oh, um." Kara looked down at her suit. "I'm a superhero on my Earth?"

"Yeah, cool. That checks out," he replied quietly, trembling slightly as he turned to Linda.

"Kara and I are from a planet called Krypton. We process solar radiation more efficiently than humans, and that gives us certain abilities."

"I have several questions."

"Later, please." Linda insisted, putting a hand on Winn's arm. "You were finding that paper." He turned back to his filing cabinet, muttering lowly.

"When do we tell him I can read minds?" Selah whispered to Kara, who shoved her gently.

"Don't you dare, he's too excitable for that today and we need him right now."

"I found it," Winn announced, pulling a folder out from the cabinet and throwing it on the table. "Ugh, why is it so hot in here?" Linda pointed to the machine, which was now shaking violently, and he let out a yelp, rushing over to it. The room grew warmer and warmer as he fumbled with the dials on the side.

"There's a valve inside that's letting out too much ammonium chloride," Selah said, crossing over to him. "If you cut off the water supply, it should stabilize itself." He flipped a lever and the machine's shaking began to slow.

"Thanks," he said, exhaling. "Why don't you have thumbs?"

"Kara cut them off so that we could escape a terrorist organization that kidnapped us and was conducting experiments on me," she replied. Kara buried her face in her hand, sighing. "I'll go open the window." She walked to the far wall as Winn shook his head, going back to the folder.

"So, um. I'm going to process all of that later. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was one of the first theorists of the multiverse when I was still at Princeton. I also made blueprints for a device that would allow you to travel from one Earth to another."

"To breach?" Kara asked.

"Sure, yeah."

"Does it work?"

"Well I never actually built one," he admitted. "I needed a bigger energy supply that what was available to me, and I couldn't get the grant money."

"But you could build one?"

"Maybe? I still don't have the resources."

"Could I power the device?" Selah asked, joining the table. "I have psychic energy that I can project onto stuff. For example, just today I learned that I can delete Kara and I from security camera footage so that we can't be tracked down."

"Okay, that's cool," Winn said. "Um, maybe? I'll have to look at my designs again, but it could work."

"How long will it take?"

"A few days, at least. I can start working on a prototype tonight, but it will be at least a day until it's ready to be tested and powered up."

"If we are of no further assistance to you, then I would like to go home," Linda said, stretching. "It's past my bedtime."

"Yeah, I have a lot of information to digest," Winn muttered, looking down at his folder. "I don't think I can handle more insane facts about how one of you can breathe fire or something." Selah opened her mouth to comment, but Kara elbowed her sharply.

"Do you two have any place to go?" Linda asked. They looked at each other, and then back at Linda uncertainly.

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A few hours later, Kara was sitting on a twin bed, trying fruitlessly to pull her boots off.

"Nanites," she grumbled. She and Selah were in Linda's guest bedroom, a small room that had two twin beds adorned with matching floral bedding. There was one nightstand with a pink lamp resting on it, and a window that was dressed with the same fabric as the bed sheets.

"Any progress?" Selah asked. She was already lying down in the other bed, and was watching Kara in great amusement.

"When I first got this suit, I never stopped to think 'What about zippers? Wouldn't zippers come in handy at some point? Should I ask Brainy to put a few zippers in, just for fun?' It never crossed my mind that I might get stranded on another Earth and that I would be stuck in the stupid thing."

"When we get back, I'll remind you to ask him about the zippers."

"Thank you." She flopped backwards onto the bed in frustration, giving up on getting the boots off.

"Linda's a pretty big fan of mauve," Selah stated, staring up at the pale pinkish walls.

"Hey, she is letting us stay here for as long as we are on this Earth. We're not allowed to complain about the color of the walls."

"She's very nice, I'm not complaining," Selah insisted. "It's weird how different from you she is."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, maybe it's just because she's older, but she's a bit more..." the girl trailed off, choosing her words carefully. "Reserved. Like, everyone's thoughts sort of have a color that's associated with them, and yours is bright yellow, but hers is-"

"Mauve?" Kara interjected.

"No. They're a dark reddish color. Like a pomegranate."

"I guess our lives on Earth haven't had a lot of similarities. She landed almost 25 years before me, it was a very different world then."

"And she didn't have Alex, or Kal, or J'onn."

"So today we learned that without Alex, your favorite color would be mauve."

"What did I just say about not making fun of her?" Kara demanded. "Besides, mauve is significantly better than the cell we were in at the Agenda."

"They did have pretty poor hospitality."

"Have you heard anything from Beta?" the girl shook her head slowly.

"I thought about trying to reach out to see if I can find her, but I don't want to give her any information about us." Kara nodded, and crawled underneath the pink flowered duvet, trying to remember the last time she slept in a bed. "What do you think it's like back on our Earth?" Selah asked.

"I don't know," Kara replied. "I guess we'll find out soon."

"Yeah," the girl pulled her arms out from under the blanket and began examining her hands. "I wish my thumbs would grow back."

"How long does that usually take?"

"About a week for them to be full grown, but they haven't even started yet."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Whenever they would cut off one of my fingers before, they would do it when my powers were gone and then they would bring them back right away. This time, we did the opposite. We cut them off when I still had my powers and then I blew them out right afterwards. I don't know if that is going to change how they grow back or not."

"Are they still going to come back?"

"Not sure," Selah tucked her arms back under the blanket and rolled onto her side to face Kara. "So when we get back to our Earth, the first thing you're going to do is tell Brainy you need zippers, and the first thing I'm going to do is tell Alex I need thumbs."

"Sounds like a plan," Kara replied, smiling. "Will you get the light?" The girl shut her eyes and twitched her head gently. The light switched flicked off, and the guest room was bathed in darkness. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"We're almost home," the hero murmured into the dark, quiet air. "Goodnight, Selah."

"Night, Kara."

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	21. Chapter 21

The mauve tinted light shining through the curtains was the first thing Kara saw as her eyes fluttered open. It took her a few long moments to remember where she was and all that had happened in the past few days. She glanced over at Selah's bed to check on the girl, and let out a breath she had instinctively begun holding in once she saw her curled up under the blankets, still asleep. They had been at Linda's for three days now, and Winn didn't seem to be any closer to a breakthrough when it came to building the device that would bring them back home. He had built two prototypes, both of which exploded soon after they were turned on, and Selah's psychic powers didn't seem to be enough to get the machine running on its own. On the bright side, he did manage to create a new remote sensor for the nanites, meaning Kara had finally been able to get out of her supersuit. Linda had supplied her and Selah with enough cardigans and pantsuits to keep them going for several weeks, all of them pink toned.

Kara rubbed her eyes wearily, wishing she were still asleep. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and saw that it was barely five in the morning. She had been having nightmares again- the old ones of Krypton, but also newer ones filled with long shadowy corridors and blue lights.

Selah stirred and murmured something in her sleep, and Kara glanced over at her, wishing -not for the first time- that she had the girl's telepathic powers. As much as Selah had opened up over the past few months, there was still so much of her that seemed shut off and distant, and Kara knew that her trauma ran deeper than she could even guess. She made a mental note that once they were back on their Earth, she needed to ask Kelly about alien therapy for Selah. And for herself, for that matter.

Being on this earth was strange, in many more ways than just one. At home, Kara was always busy, always working on some project for work or case as Supergirl. There wasn't much down time, but here, down time was all that she had. There was no Supergirl on this earth, and while Selah was fully involved in getting them back home, Kara didn't know the first thing about mechanical engineering or physics. Every day, she followed Linda and Selah to campus, and sat in Winn's office as the girl tinkered with machinery and pored over blueprints. Kara tried to help as much as she could, but usually she just stayed out of the way, not wanting to hinder the process in any way. And while she appreciated the break from the rush of daily life, she longed to be busy again, to feel like she was achieving something and not just waiting and hoping for things to fall into place.

She heard birds beginning to sing outside, and burrowed her head under the pillow. Sometimes she really wished she didn't have super hearing. Rolling over, Kara tried her best to fall back asleep, knowing it was a fairly fruitless endeavor.

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The evening air was cool- Kara was certain that this earth was colder than hers- and she wrapped her coat tighter around herself despite not really feeling the chill. The coat was Linda's, woolen and pink, and it looked to be at least thirty years old. It was slightly too big for Kara, enveloping her in a comfortable warmth as she walked along the streets of a city that was ever so slightly not hers. Everything was bathed in the dim tea-colored light of early evening, and the buildings around her seemed softer in its glow.

Kara wasn't certain where she was going as she walked, but she had learned that this National City was laid out almost identically to her National City, and that she could still find her way around with surprising ease. She idly wondered if any of the people she passed lived in her city as well, and if she had seen any of them on her walks in the evenings back home. Walking always helped Kara to clear her head when things felt too confusing or if everything was changing too quickly. It was second only to flying, but she had decided that it was best to try to stay under the radar while they were here, and flying wasn't exactly conspicuous.

As she walked, she wondered about what life might be like back on her earth. Had it snowed there yet? Was everything still relatively the same as they had left it? A lump rose up in her throat as she thought of Alex. She really missed her sister, she missed movie nights and pizza and late night conversations about anything and everything. It was always hard for Kara when she was away from Alex, but this time was worse. She wasn't sure if it was just because she had no way of contacting her sister to check if she was alright, or if it was because she knew how worried Alex must be, or if it was a mixture of the two, but the guilt she felt weighed heavily upon her.

She approached the waterfront and sat down on a bench, staring out over the water. The wind was stronger away from the shelter of the buildings, and it blew her hair around her face. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was flying, soaring high above the city where the world was quiet.

When she opened her eyes again, it was darker around her. All of the streetlamps were turned on, and the sleepiness of dusk had been replaced by the sharp chill of evening. Kara stood up from the bench, giving the water one last glance before heading back to Linda's apartment. The professor lived on the other end of town from Kara, and she passed her loft as she walked, staring up at it wistfully.

She found it surprisingly difficult to connect with her doppelganger. Seeing as all of the other Karas she met had tried to kill her, she greatly preferred Linda, but there was a strange sense of distance with her. Kara wanted to talk to her about Krypton, about how it was the same or different from Linda's, or about how it was for the woman when she came to Earth without Kal-El. There were so few people that she could talk to openly about what her life had been like, but Linda was so stoic and reserved. Kara didn't want to make the woman uncomfortable, or to overstep on any boundaries, especially when she had so graciously accepted them into her home and life. Still, she yearned for that connection, to be able to tell her about how awkward middle school was, or how her aunt used to read her bedtime stories and teach her Krypton's constellations, knowing that Linda would truly understand her.

Kara knocked gently on the front door before opening it. The professor was in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea, but she looked up as Kara entered and hung up her coat.

"Hey," she said, wiping her shoes on the mat.

"How was your walk?" Linda asked.

"Good. Helped me clear my head."

"Alright. Winn asked if you and Selah can help him with the machine tomorrow evening. I have a late class so I won't be able to help." She hesitated, taking a long sip of her tea before adding, "I think they've been having some difficulty with the prototypes. Selah's been pacing a lot."

"I'll check in with her."

"Would you like a cup?" She gestured to her mug. "I usually drink a cup of chamomile before bed."

"I'm fine, thank you," Kara replied. "I think I'm just going to turn in for the night."

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight." Kara smiled at her doppelganger, who returned the favor, but the woman's smile didn't quite meet her eyes. Leaving the kitchen, Kara went back into the guest bedroom that she and Selah were still sharing. The overhead light was off but the girl had turned on the bedside lamp, bathing the room in a soft yellow light. Selah's bed was lined with papers and blueprints but she didn't seem to be doing much with them, and was stonily staring at the closet door instead.

"What's up?" Kara inquired, and Selah tore her eyes away from the wall.

"Nothing," she answered evenly, much too quickly to be believable. Kara closed the door and walked over to Selah's bed, carefully clearing a space for her to sit down.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I can't focus," Selah admitted, looking down at her hands, which still had no fingers. "On the prototype, on anything. I feel like my brain is mush."

"Why?"

"I don't know." The girl slouched forwards and cupped her chin in her hands. "We almost died."

"We did."

"Does any of this ever get normal?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just-" Selah trailed off, rubbing a hand over her eyes before beginning to speak again. "Someday I want to live in a little house where the sun shines into the kitchen and I'll have herbs growing in pots on the windowsills. And I want to have a cat. And I want to get married and to have kids that I can take to their little league games on Saturdays. And I want to graduate from university, and get a job. I want to feel normal. But it doesn't seem like I'm ever going to get that. Between my awful mother and the terrorist organization that's chasing us and now my inter-dimensional travel-" she cut herself off, and turned to look at Kara seriously. "Does it ever get more normal?"

"Honest answer?" Kara replied. "Not really." Seeing the girl deflate slightly, Kara put an arm around her, knocking a few papers off the bed. "Selah, you and I aren't normal by Earth standards. I tried being normal for half my life and things still never felt right. Trying to fit into that is only ever going to limit you and your potential."

"Yeah but it would be a whole lot easier," she muttered, looking at the floor. Kara snorted.

"Maybe."

"What do we do instead?"

"Make our own normal. Using my powers, finding my chosen family, being a journalist, that's what finally made me feel like I was doing things right. And no, it's not always the most stable or safe thing, but it's what I'm meant to be doing."

"I just wish sometimes it didn't have to be me, y'know?"

"I know." Selah's eyes were still fixed on a spot on the floor, and Kara shivered as a wave of energy rolled off of the girl. She took a deep breath and began speaking again: "Sometimes I feel like I have this clock over my head, right?" she said. Selah didn't react. "And it says how much time I have left before a villain punches too hard, or someone gets their hands on Kryptonite, or I fly too far away from the atmosphere. I don't know how much time is on the clock, but I know it's there. And every morning I think _is it today?_ _Is today the day that the clock is going to run out_?"

"And then what do you do?" The girl asked, still not moving.

"I get up. I go through my day. I live, Selah. You're still here, you're still living. Don't waste that." Finally looking up, Selah met Kara's eyes and nodded quietly. "Now," Kara began, standing up, gathering some of Selah's discarded papers. "You should try getting some rest. I don't want to be stuck awake all night with you trying to figure this out."

"I just want to make it make sense."

"That's a job for tomorrow. You can make the scientific breakthrough of the century, and I can discover if there is recycling on this earth or not." She put the stray papers into a stack and put them onto the floor.

"My job seems significantly harder than yours."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kara quipped with a smirk. "I have complete faith in you."

"Thanks," the girl replied, telepathically putting the cap onto her pen and setting it on the nightstand.

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End file.
